ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
WenbourneHill
HERE are we my dear girl in the very height of preparation We begin our journey southward at five tomorrow morning We shall make a short stay in London and then proceed to Paris Expectation is on tiptoe my busy fancy
has pictured to itself Calais Montreuil Abbeville in short every place which the book of post roads enumerates and some of which the divine Sterne has rendered so famous I expect to find nothing but mirth vivacity fancy and multitudes of people I have read so much of the populousness of France the gaiety of its inhabitants the magnificence of its buildings its fine climate fertility numerous cities superb roads rich plains and teeming vineyards that I already imagine myself journeying through an enchanted land
I have another pleasure in prospect Pray have you heard that your brother is soon to be at Paris on his return from Italy—My father surprised me by informing me we should probably
meet him in that capital I suspect Sir Arthur of an implication which his words perhaps will not authorize but he asked me rather significantly if I had ever heard you talk of your brother and in less than five minutes wished to know whether I had any objections to marriage
My father is exceedingly busy with his head man his plotter his planner giving directions concerning still further improvements that are to be made in his grounds and park during our absence You know his mania Improvement is his disease I have before hinted to you that I do not like this factotum of his this Abimelech Henley The amiable qualities of his son more than compensate for the meanness of the father
whom I have long suspected to be and am indeed convinced that he is artful selfish and honest enough to seek his own profit were it at the expence of his employers ruin He is continually insinuating new plans to my father whom he Sir Arthurs and Honours and Nobles at every word and then persuades him the hints and thoughts are all his own The illiterate fellow has a language peculiar to himself energetic but half unintelligible compounded of a few fine phrases and an inundation of proverbial wisdom and uncouth cant terms Of the scanty number of polite words which he has endeavoured to catch he is very bountiful to Sir Arthur
Thats noble Thats great your noble honour Well by my truly
thats an elegunt ideer But I always said your honour had more nobler and elegunter ideers than any other noble gentleman knight lord or dooke in every thing of what your honour calls the grand gusto
Pshaw It is ridiculous in me to imitate his language the cunning nonsense of which evaporates upon paper but is highly characteristic when delivered with all its attendant bows and cringes which like the accompaniments to a concerto enforce the character of the composition and give it full effect
I am in the very midst of bandboxes portmanteaus packingcases and travelling trunks I scarcely ever knew a mind so sluggish as not to feel a certain degree of rapture at the thoughts of
travelling It should seem as if the imagination frequently journeyed so fast as to enjoy a species of ecstasy when there are any hopes of dragging the cumbrous body after its flights
I cannot banish the hints of Sir Arthur from my busy fancy—I must not I ought not to practise disguise with any one much less with my Louisa and I cannot but own that his questions suggested a plan of future happiness to my mind which if realized would be delightful The brother of my dear Louisa the chosen friend of my heart is to be at Paris I shall meet him there He cannot but resemble his sister He cannot but be all generosity love expansion mind soul I am determined to have a very sincere friendship for him
nay I am in danger of falling in love with him at first sight Louisa knows what I mean by falling in love Ah my dear friend if he be but half equal to you he is indeed a matchless youth Our souls are too intimately related to need any nearer kindred and yet since marry I must as you emphatically tell me it will some time be my duty to do I could almost wish Sir Arthurs questions to have the meaning I suspect and that it might be to the brother of my friend
Do not call me romantic if romance it be it originates in the supreme satisfaction I have taken in contemplating the powers and beauties of my Louisas mind Our acquaintance has been but short yet our friendship appears as if it
had been eternal Our hearts understand each other and speak a language which alas we both have found to be unintelligible to the generality of the world
Once more adieu You shall hear from me again at London Direct to me as usual in Grosvenor Street
Ever and ever your A W ST IVES
P S
I am sorry to see poor Frank Henley look so dejected He has many good nay I am well persuaded many great qualities Perhaps he is disappointed at not being allowed to go with us for which I know he petitioned his father but was refused otherwise I
could easily have prevailed on Sir Arthur to have consented
I am determined to take King Pepin with me It is surely the most intelligent of all animals the unfeathered bipeds as the French wits call us twolegged mortals excepted But no wonder it was my Louisas gift and kissing her lips imbibed a part of her spirit Were I to leave it behind me cats and other good for nothing creatures would teach it again to be shy and suspicious and the present charming exertion of its little faculties would decay The developement of mind even in a bird has something in it highly delightful
Why my Louisa my friend my sister ah why are not you with me Why do you not participate my pleasures catch with me the rising ideas and enjoy the raptures of novelty But I will forbear I have before in vain exhausted all my rhetoric You must not will not quit a languishing parent and I am obliged to approve your determination though I cannot but regret the consequence
LOUISA CLIFTON TO ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES
Rose Bank
HEALTH joy and novelty attend the steps of my ever dear and charming Anna May the whirling of your chariot wheels bring a succession of thoughts as exhilarating as they are rapid May gladness hail you through the day and peace hush you to sleep at night May
the hills and valleys smile upon you as you roll over and beside them and may you meet festivity and fulness of content at every step
I too have my regrets My heart is onehalf with you nay my beloved my generous mamma has endeavoured to persuade me to quit her arguing that the inconvenience to her would be more than compensated by the benefit accruing to myself The dear lady I sincerely believe loves you if possible better than she does me and pleaded strenuously But did she not know it was impossible she should prevail She did If my cares can prolong a life so precious but half an hour is it not an age Do not her virtues and her wisdom communicate themselves to all around
her Are not her resignation her fortitude and her cheerfulness in pain lessons which I might traverse kingdoms and not find an opportunity like this of learning And affection out of the question having such high duties to perform must I fly from such an occasion afflicting though it be No Anna St Ives herself must not tempt me to that She is indeed too noble seriously to form such a wish Answer is she not
Oh that I may be deceived but I fear you expect too much from my brother Oh that he might be worthy of my Anna Not for my own sake for as she truly says we That is our fouls for I know of no other we We cannot be more akin but for his own
He is the son of my beloved mother and most devoutly do I wish he might be found deserving of her and you He would then be more deserving than any man at least any young man I have ever known Though brother and sister he and I may be said to have but little acquaintance He has always been either at school or at college or in town or on his travels or in some place where I did not happen to be except for short intervals I have told you that his person is not displeasing that his temper appears to be prompt and daring but gay and that his manners I doubt are of that free kind which our young gentlemen affect
To say the truth however I have heard much in favour of Coke Clifton
but then it has generally been either from persons whose good word was in my opinion no praise or from others who evidently meant to be civil to me or to the family by speaking well of my brother I believe him to have much pride some ambition a high sense of fashionable honour that he spurns at threats disdains reproof and that he does not want generosity or those accomplishments which would make him pass with the world for a man whose alliance would be desirable But the husband of my Anna you perceive I have caught your tone and use the word husband as familiarly as if there were any serious intention of such an event and as if it were any thing more than the sportive effusion of fancy or rather the momentary
expansion of friendship the husband of my Anna ought to be more infinitely more than what the world understands by such phrases if it can be said to understand anything Forgive the jingle but to pair with her he ought to be her peer And yet if she wait till time shall send her such a one and that one every way proper for her alliance in her fathers opinion as well as in her own I am afraid her chance of marriage will be infinitely small
Were I but assured that Coke Clifton would be as kind and as worthy a husband to Anna St Ives as any other whom it were probable accident should ever throw in her way I should then indeed seriously wish such a thought might be something more than the transient
flight of fancy But enough You are on the wing to the city where you and he will probably meet Examine him well forget his sister be true to yourself and your own judgment and I have no fear that you should be deceived If he prove better even than a sisters hopes he will find in me more than a sisters love
I like Sir Arthurs favourite Abimelech Henley still less than you do My fears indeed are rather strong When once a taste for improvement I mean building and gardening improvement becomes a passion gaming itself is scarcely more ruinous I have no doubt that Sir Arthurs fortune has suffered and is suffering severely and that while that miserly wretch Abimelech is destroying
the fabric he is purloining and carrying off the best of the materials I doubt whether there be an acre of land in the occupation of Sir Arthur which has not cost ten times its intrinsic value to make it better It is astonishing how Sir Arthur can be pardon the expression my dear such a dupe I have before blamed and must again blame you for not exerting yourself sufficiently to shew him his folly It concerns the family it concerns yourself nearly Who can tell how far off the moment is when it may be too late My mamma has just heard of a new mortgage in procuring of which the worthy Abimelech acted or pretended to act as agent for I assure you I suspect he was really the principal During my last visit if I do not mistake I
several times saw the pride of wealth betraying itself and only subdued by the superior thirst of gain
Poor Frank Henley Is it not miraculous that such a father should have such a son I am tempted to give utterance to a strange thought Why should I not What is the opinion of the world what are its prejudices in the presence of truth Yet not to respect them is to entail upon ourselves I know not what load of acrimony contempt and misery I must speak—I never yet met a youth whom I thought so deserving of Anna St Ives as Frank Henley The obstacles you will say are insurmountable Alas I fear they are And therefore tis fortunate that the same thought has not more strongly occurred
to you Perhaps my caution would have been greater but that I know your affections are free and yet I confess I wonder that they are so If it be the effect of your reason the praise you merit is infinite and I hope and believe it is for notwithstanding all the tales I have heard and read my mind is convinced of nothing more firmly than that the passion of love is as capable of being repressed and conquered as any other passion whatever and you know we have both agreed that the passions are all of them subject to reason when reason is sufficiently determined to exert its power
I have written a long letter but writing to you I never know when to end
Heaven bless my Anna St Ives
LOUISA CLIFTON
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
WenbourneHill
OLIVER I am wretched The feeble Frank Henley is a poor miserable being The sun shines the birds warble the flowers spring the buds are bursting into bloom all nature rejoices yet to me this mirth this universal joy seems mockery—Why is this Why do
I suffer my mind thus to be pervaded by melancholy Why am I thus steeped in gloom
She is going—Thursday morning is the time fixed—And what is that to me—Madman that I am—Who am I Does she can she ought she to think of me—And why not Am I not a man and is she more than mortal—She is She is—Shew me the mortal who presumes to be her equal
But what do I wish What would I have Is it my intention or my desire to make her wretched What Sink her whom I adore in the estimation of the world and render her the scoff of the foolish the vain and the malignant—I—I make her wretched—I—
Oliver she treats me with indifference—
cold calm killing indifference Yet kind heavenly kind even in her coldness Her cheerful eye never turns from me nor ever seeks me To her I am a statue—Would I were Why does she not hate me Openly and absolutely hate me—And could I wish her to love Do I love Do I Dare I Have I the temerity so much as to suspect I love—Who am I The insignificant son of—
And who is she The daughter of a Baronet—Pshaw What is a Baronet—Away with such insolent such ridiculous distinctions She is herself Let Folly and Inferiority keep their distance
But I—Low bred and vulgar let Pride and Error call me but not villain I the seducer of mens daughters Noble
men and still nobler daughters I Why would I be so very vile a thing Would I if I could
Yet who shall benumb the understanding chain up the fancy and freeze sensation Can I command myself deaf when she sings dead when she speaks or rush into idiotism to avoid her enchantments
Despise me Oliver if thou wilt but the deep sense I have of my own folly does but increase the distemper of my brain She herself pities me yet does not suspect my disease Tis evident she does not for her soul is above artifice She kindly asked—was I not well I owned I was not quite so cheerful as I could wish to be and wouldst thou think it was presumptuous enough to hint that
I thought the enlivening air of France might do me good Thou seest how frantic I am She answered with the utmost ease and without the most distant suspicion of my selfish my audacious motive that she would speak to Sir Arthur But I was obliged to request her to forbear till I had first tried to gain my fathers consent of which indeed I had but feeble hopes
Every way miserable why am I obliged to think and speak of my father with so little respect Indeed he is—Well well—He is my father—I am convinced he is become wealthy nay indeed he gives me to understand as much when he wishes to gain any purpose by endeavouring to excite avarice in me
which he hopes is and perhaps supposes must be mine and every mans ruling passion Yet no he cannot his complaints of me for the want of it are too heartfelt too bitter
He has kept me in ignorance as much as was in his power Reading writing and arithmetic is his grand system of education after which man has nothing more to learn except to get and to hoard money Had it not been for the few books I bought and the many I borrowed together with the essential instruction which thy excellent fathers learning and philanthropy enabled and induced him to give me I should probably have been as illiterate as he could have wished A son after his own heart
One of his most frequent and most passionate reproaches is
the time I waste in reading
I scarcely need tell thee he was almost in a rage at my request to accompany Sir Arthur to France stating as I did that it ought to be and must be at his expence Otherwise he cares but little where I go being rather regarded by him as a spy on his actions than as his son Thou canst not conceive the contempt with which he treats me for my want of cunning He despises my sense of philanthropy honour and that severe probity to which no laws extend He spurns at the possibility of preferring the good of society to the good of self—But once again he is my father
Prithee lend me thy Petrarch and
send it in return by Thomas I had nothing to say though I have written so much except to ask for this book and to burden thee with my complaints Remember me kindly to thy most worthy father and all the family Thine
F HENLEY
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
OH Louisa I have such a narrative Such accidents Such— But you shall hear
We are arrived and thank God and good fortune are all alive which every thing considered is no small consolation The chaise was at the door punctually at
five on Thursday morning Abimelech Henley had been very busy with Sir Arthur over night and was in close conference with him again previous to our departure
Frank too was there as disconsolate and as attentive as ever active and watchful that every thing was as it should be How the difference between soul and soul discovers itself in such scenes I very much fear his father treats him unkindly and that he grieves more than he ought nay more than a person of his youth strong form and still stronger mind could be supposed to grieve I understand he very much laments the loss of a college education which the miser his father could very well have bestowed upon him had not
his heart been as contracted as the mouth of his purse
Mr Trenchard luckily for Frank early discovered his genius and gratuitously aided him in his studies Frank reveres him as a more than father and loves his son Oliver like a brother He is but too sensible that a true father feeds the mind and that he who only provides for the body is no better than a stepfather I have some fear that there is another cause for his dissatisfaction and that he has cherished some silly thoughts of an impossible nature If so an effort must be made which I hope will restore him to reason And yet what right have I to conclude that he reasons erroneously Have I sufficiently examined This is a question which has several times lately
forced itself upon my mind I am not insensible of his high worth it opens upon me daily What I am going to relate will picture that worth better than any praise of mine I will therefore continue my narrative
Every thing being adjusted off we went I Laura and Sir Arthur in the chaise and one footman only with us who was to ride before as our courier and prepare horses
I told you of my intention to take King Pepin with me but the morning of our departure was all hurry and it seldom happens that something is not forgotten amid the tumult into which the passions seem to plunge as it were with delight gratified with the confusion which themselves create I must own I
was vexed and offended with myself when I found that the something overlooked on this occasion was the gift of my Louisa Ingratitude with all its reproaches rose up to sting me and I immediately resolved to punish myself by informing my Louisa how unworthy I am of the gifts of such a friend It was at the first stage where we changed horses that I made this discovery One moment I was inclined to petition Sir Arthur to stay while a messenger should be sent but the next I determined that my fault should incur its due pains and penalties
Every thing was ready but just as we had seated ourselves in the chaise and were again proceeding on our journey one of the servants of the inn called
to Sir Arthur to stop for young Mr Henley was coming up full speed on the bay mare Frank and the bay mare are both famous through the whole country My father immediately prognosticated some bad accident and I began to be alarmed Our fears however were soon dissipated his only errand being to bring my charming favourite
I confess I was not a little moved by this mark of attention which indeed is but one among many as well as by the peculiarity of the youths manner in delivering the bird He was fearful visibly fearful that his desire to oblige should be thought officious He attempted to apologize but knew not what to say I thanked him very sincerely and in the kindest manner I could
and seeing him booted the thought instantly struck me to request Sir Arthurs permission for him to accompany us to London which I imagined might give him pleasure
The request happened to coincide with some new project of alteration which Sir Arthur had conceived and which he said after having further digested he could better communicate to Frank than describe on paper The mare is said to be one of the best travellers in the kingdom and as she was very capable of performing the journey and the carriage being rather heavily loaded he accordingly kept pace with us
During the day we passed many delightful scenes and enjoyed the charming prospects which the rich cultivation
of England and the road we travelled afford Frank Henley was scarcely ever out of sight though he was rather watchfully assiduous than communicative
Sir Arthur for his part did not forget to point out to us what a charming park such and such grounds might be turned into how picturesque a temple or a church steeple would look in this place what a fine effect a sheet of water would have in that bottom and how nobly a clump of trees would embellish the hill by which it was overlooked
I believe I am a sad wicked girl Louisa I was once strangely tempted to tell him I was much afraid his father had mistaken the trade to which his genius was best adapted when he made him a baronet instead of a gardener
However I had the grace to bite my tongue and be silent He might have had the retort courteous upon me and have replied that gardening was much the most honourable trade of the two But he would never have thought of that answer
Thus the day as I tell you passed pleasantly and whimsically enough But the night Oh—The night—You shall hear
It was the dusk of evening when we were at Maidenhead We had then three stages to go and Sir Arthur began to be alarmed by the rumours of depredations which had lately been committed on the road I really do not know what to say to it but there appears to be something deeper in the doctrine of sympathies
than such silly girls as I can either account for or comprehend I endeavoured with all my might to oppose the sensation and yet I found my fathers fears were catching Frank Henley indeed begged of me with great energy not to be alarmed for that he would die sooner than I should be insulted Upon my honour Louisa he is a gallant youth—You shall hear—But he is a brave a gallant youth
I cannot say but I wished I were a man though I am convinced it was a foolish wish and that it is a great mistake to suppose courage has any connexion with sex if we except as we ought the influence of education and habit My dear mother had not the bodily strength of Sir Arthur but with respect to cool
courage and active presence of mind I must say Louisa there was no comparison
We set off however Frank having first provided himself with a hanger and a pair of pistols and he now kept close to the chaisedoor without once quitting his station I believe Sir Arthur was heartily glad at being thus provided with a guard as it were unexpectedly and without any foresight of his own For not to mention gold watches and trinkets he had more money with him than he would have chosen to have lost fright out of the question
We proceeded thus without molestation as far as Brentford but not without receiving fresh hints that it was very possible we might be visited and then
though it began to be drawing toward midnight Sir Arthur thought the danger chiefly over As it happened he was mistaken He was indeed my dear I assure you I could tremble now with the thoughts of it but that my womanhood forbids I remember how valiant I have been in laughing at the pretty fears of pretty ladies with their salts hartshorn fits and burnt feathers Beside I would not have my Louisa think too meanly of me Yet I assure you it was a terrible night
We had just passed the broad part of Turnham Green as Frank has since told me and were near the end of a lane which strikes into the Uxbridge road when the postillion was stopped by one highwayman while almost at the same
instant another dashed his pistol through the sideglass into the chaise full in Sir Arthurs face
Frank was on my side—Notwithstanding the length of the journey he seemed to infuse his own ardour into the spirited animal on which he rode and was round instantaneously—It was really dreadful—The highwayman saw or rather heard him coming for it was prodigiously dark and fired Poor Frank was shot—In the shoulder—But he says he did not feel it at first—He returned the fire and the highwayman exclaimed with a shocking oath I am a dead man He rode away however full speed and his associate who stood to guard the postboy rode after him Frank imagines that owing to the darkness of the night
and his being so close under the chaise they had not perceived him when they came to the attack
But here let me tell you for I am sure I ought our protector our hero is not dangerously wounded He indeed makes very light of it but I am persuaded he would do that if he had lost an arm The moment the highwaymen were gone he rode round to me to intreat me not to be alarmed for that all was safe
Imagine whether I did not thank him and bless him at least in ejaculation Imagine what I felt after what I had heard at hearing him talk to me and at being convinced that he was actually alive I had not the least suspicion of his being wounded he spoke so cheerfully
yet I naturally enquired if he were hurt His answer was—No no—Not hurt—But he spoke with an emphasis that immediately raised my apprehensions I repeated my question—Are you sure you are not hurt not wounded He could not say no to that and therefore answered—He believed he felt a slight contusion in the shoulder but that he was convinced it was trifling
I was now seized with a fit of terror much greater in effect than my former panic I fervently intreated Sir Arthur to let the servant take the bay mare and ride for help I begged urgently violently for Gods sake that he would take my place in the chaise I would mount
the mare myself I would do any thing All the replies I could get were still more vehement intercessions from Frank Henley that I would not be alarmed assurances that there was not the least danger the most obstinate determination not to quit his post and notwithstanding the pain which he could not but feel a persisting to reload the discharged pistol and then to proceed
I know not myself how my fears were so far pacified as to yield to this except that his energy seemed to overpower mine Indeed I suffered dreadfully the rest of the way I knew the youths generous spirit and my imagination was haunted with the idea that the blood was flowing every foot of the road and that
he would rather drop from the horse than be subdued It is impossible indeed it is to tell you what I felt
At last we arrived in Grosvenor Street and sure enough the poor fellow was faint with the loss of blood My God—said I to Sir Arthur when the light was brought and I saw him—Send for a surgeon Good Heavens Run Somebody run for help—He still insisted he was but slightly hurt and began to resume all his earnestness to quiet me Sir Arthur did it more effectually by sending as I desired and by telling me that if I continued to agitate by contending with him so much I might very possibly throw him into a fever and make a wound which most probably was not in itself dangerous mortal
I said not another word except seriously and solemnly requesting him to calm his mind for his own sake if not for mine for that after being wounded in defence of me and my father to die by my fault were dreadful indeed He retired with more apparent satisfaction in his countenance than I think I ever saw before
I was resolved however not to go to bed till I had received some account from the surgeon He came the wound was examined and word was immediately sent me by the express command of Frank who had been told I was sitting up for that purpose that there was as he had assured me no danger The surgeon indeed thought proper to qualify it with no great danger It is an old remark
that surgeons are not prone to speak too lightly of the miracles they perform This short syllable great did not fail however to disturb me very considerably I waited till the ball was extracted and Would you believe it brought us for I insisted upon seeing it Sir Arthur called me a mad girl adding there was no ruling me I persisted in questioning and crossexamining the surgeon till I was convinced that as he said there was no great danger and I then retired to rest that is I retired to the same swimming motion which the chaise had communicated to my nerves or my brain or I know not what and to dreaming of swords pistols murdered men and all the horrid ramblings of the fancy under such impressions
To convince me how trifling the hurt was the gallant Frank insisted the next day on coming down to dinner though he was allowed to eat nothing but chicken broth and a light pudding I never saw him so lively His only present danger of death he said was by famine and complained jocularly of the hardship of fasting after a long journey I could almost have persuaded him to eat for indeed he is a brave a noble youth
I know I never need apologize to my Louisa for the length of my letters How can we enjoy equal pleasure to that of thus conversing in despite of distance and though separated by seas and mountains Indeed it is a kind of privation to end but end I must—therefore—Adieu
A W ST IVES
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London Grosvenor Street
YOU did not expect dear Oliver to receive a letter from me dated at this distance By the luckiest accident in the world I have been allowed to accompany her thus far have ridden all day with my eye fixed upon her and at night have had the ecstatic pleasure to defend to fight for her Perhaps have
saved her life Have been wounded for her—Would I had been killed—Was there ever so foolish so wrong so romantic a wish And yet it has rushed involuntarily upon me fifty times To die for her seems to be a bliss which mortal man cannot merit Truth severe truth perhaps will not justify these effusions I will I do endeavour to resist them—Indeed I am ashamed of myself for I find I am very feeble Yet let not thy fears be too violent for thy friend he will not lightly desert his duty
Let me tell thee before I proceed that my wound is slight—We were stopped by a couple of highwaymen Thou never wert a witness of such angelic sensibility as the divine creature discovered when she found I had received
some hurt She alarmed me beyond description by the excess of her feelings Oh She has a soul alive to all the throbs of humanity It shoots and shivers in every vein—Then too when we arrived when candles were brought I had bled somewhat freely and I suppose looked rather pale thou hast no conception of it is impossible to conceive the energy with which she insisted on sending for the best and most immediate help
We had another battle of sensibility for I assure thee I was almost as much Did I not know her I should say more alarmed for her as she could be for me
Yet do not imagine I am fool enough to flatter myself with any false hopes
No it was humanity it was too deep a sense of a slight benefit received it was totally distinct from love—Oh no Love added to such strong such acute sensations surely Oliver it would have shrieked would have fainted would have died—Her fears and feelings were powerful I grant but they were all social and would have been equally awakened for any creature whom she had known and had equal cause to esteem And she esteems all who hav but the smallest claims to such respect even me—Did I tell thee it was she who petitioned Sir Arthur to lay his commands on me to attend them to London knowing I wished it and that this was in return for the trifling favour I had done her in galloping after her
with her favourite bird Oh She is all benignity All grace All angel
Never did I feel such raptures as since I have received this fortunate this happy wound—Yet why—Is not her heart exactly what it was It is I should be an idiot not to perceive it is Strange contradiction Hopeless yet happy—But it is a felicity of short duration
Would it were possible for me to accompany her to France My restless foreboding imagination has persuaded me she will be in danger the moment she is from under my protection Vain fool Who what am I—Because a couple of dastardly highwaymen have galloped away at the first report of a
pistol my inflated fancy has been busy in persuading me that I am her hero
Yet I wish I might go with her Tell me Oliver wouldst not thou wish so too Would not all the world wish the same Didst thou ever in thy life behold her without feelings unusual throbs doubts desires and fears wild incoherent yet deriving ecstasy from that divinity which irradiates her form and beams on every object around her—Do—Think me a poor raving lovesick blockhead And yet it is true All I have said of her and infinitely more is true Thou nor the world cannot disprove it Would I might go with her
I have seen the fellow with whom I had the rencounter His wound is much more severe than mine Sir Arthur sent information to the office in Bow Street Wouldst thou think a highwayman could be so foolish a coxcomb as to rob in a bright scarlet coat and to ride a light grey horse The bloodhunters I am sorry that our absurd our iniquitous laws oblige me to call them so the bloodhunters soon discovered the wounded man Forty pounds afforded a sufficient impulse They were almost ready to quarrel with me because I did not choose to swear as heartily as they thought proper to prompt Thou knowest how I abhor the taking away the life of man instead of seeking his reformation
After persisting that it was impossible for me to identify the person of the highwayman as indeed it really was and luckily prevailing on Sir Arthur to do the same though he like most folks who have any thing to lose was convinced it would be an excellent thing if all rogues could be instantly hanged like dogs out of the way I paid the poor wretch a visit privately and gave him such a lecture as I should hope he would not easily forget It was not all censure soothing reasoning and menace were mingled My greatest effort was to convince him of the folly of such crimes he had received fome proof of the danger He was in great pain and did not think his life quite secure He promised reformation with all the apparent
fervour of sincerity prayed for me blessed me very heartily and praised me for my bravery He says the Bow Street runners will leave nothing unattempted to secure the reward and take away his life I have therefore engaged to hire a lodging and bring a hackney coach for him myself at seven in the morning the hour least likely for him to be watched or traced I believe I was more earnest to prevent harm happening to him than he himself was for having met a man upon the stairs whose physiognomy dress and appearance led me to suspect him I questioned my penitent who owned it was his accomplice a determined fellow according to his account an Irish gambler whose daring character led
him after a run of ill luck to this desperate resource It was with some difficulty I could persuade him the fellow might betray him and join the Bow Street people The gambler as he says expects a supply and has promised him money But he has consented to leave his lodging and I think I have convinced him of the folly danger and guilt of such connections
I found he was poor and except a few shillings left him the trifle of money which I had endeavouring by every means to restore a lost wretch to virtue and society The fellow was not flint The tears gushed into his eyes and I own I came away with hopes that my efforts had not been wholly ineffectual
I have written by the first post that thou mayst know what is become of me Farewell
F HENLEY
LOUISA CLIFTON TO ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES
Rose Bank
I HAVE only time for a single line but I cannot forbear to tell you how great the emotions have been which I felt my dear Anna at reading your last Ten thousand thanks for you history for so it may well be called You have quite filled my mind with the pictures incidents and adventures of
your journey—Then your deliverer—Such courage—Such fortitude—Such—
I must not finish my sentence I must not tell you all I think concerning him There were two or three passages in your letter which raised doubts in my mind but of these I was soon cured by recollecting a sentence at the beginning—An effort must be made which will restore him to reason Yet the question must be examined—Certainly—You could not be Anna St Ives and act or feel otherwise
But I absolutely adore this youth this Frank Henley
The boy is waiting he will be too late for the post Be that my excuse for the briefness of this but do not
fail my dear dear Anna to write fully every thing that passes Your last has both warmed my feelings nay in some measure my fears and excited my curiosity
Yours eternally L CLIFTON
P S
I will write more at length tomorrow
ABIMELECH HENLEY TO SIR ARTHUR ST IVES BARONET
WenbourneHill
Most onnurable Sir my ever onnurd Master
THE instructions you wus pleased to give me have bin kept in mind Your
onnurs commands is my duties your precepts is my laws For why Your noble onnur knows how to command and I knows how to obey
The willow dell is fillin up all hands is at work I keeps em to it The sloap of the grande kinal will be finisht and turft over in 3 wekes and I have chosen the younk plants for the
vardunt hall nice wons they be too your onnur
But I have a bin ponderaitin on all these thinks and sooth an trooth to say your onnur I doubt as how the bitt I mean the kole your onnur witch your noble onnur has a bin pleesd to stipilate and lay by for these here improvements And glorious improvements they will be let me tell your onnur I think I knows a sumthink of the matter thof to be sure I must a say as how I am no more nur a chit a kintlin to your onnur in matters of taste and the grande goosto and all a that there but Ill give your onnur my two ears if there be any think at all komparissuble or parallel to it in all England But as I wus a sayin to your noble
onnur—I am afeard we shall want cash and I am a sure that would be a ten • of pitties Especially if your onnur thinks any think more of the vister with another church steepil in prospekshun And to be sure it was a noble thoft I must say it would a be a sin and a shame to let sitch an elegunt ideer a slip through your fingurs And then pardn me your onnur but for what and for why and for wherefore
Besides all witch your onnur wus a menshinnin a willdurness and a hermmutidge and a grotto all witch as your onnur said would conceal the dead flat anenst the 3 old okes And would your onnur think of stoppin short after havin a done all that your onnur has a done to bring Wenbourne Hill into vogue
an reppitaishun and make it the talk of the hole kuntree Nay for the matter of that it is a that already that I must say But then as your onnur says in answer nothink is done till every think is done
And so I have paradventerd umbelly to speak my foolish thofts on this here business For why I knows a what your onnur will say Your onnur will tell me when your onnur comes back Ay honest Aby I wish the shiners that I a spent and a bamboozild in that there France had a bin strewed over these here grounds For over and above of what I a bin a menshinnin to your onnur there is the tempel beside a the new plantation of a witch your onnur has so long a bin talkin of a buildin of
And then there is the extenshun and ogmenshun of the new ruins So that all together I must say that if simple honest Aby might paradventer to put in my oar to so generous and so noble a gentleman and moreover won of his majestys baronets why I would keep the money now I had a got it since as your onnur finds money is not so easy to be a come at Pray your onnur I beesiege your onnur dont forget that money is not so easy to be a come at
And so I most umbelly rimmane with the blessin of almighty mercifool praise your onnurs most umbel and most obedient very faithfool and very thankfool kind sarvent to command
ABIMELECH HENLEY
P S
I pray your onnur to think of the vister and the willdurness and the hermmutidge I pray your onnur doo ee not forrgettin the tempel Think of the money your most dear gracious noble onnur and think to what vantidge I could a lay it out for your onnur that is take me ritely your most exceptionable onnur a savin and a sayin under your wise onnurs purtection and currection and every think of that there umbel and very submissive obedient kind Bring me the man that a better knows how to lay out his pound or his penni than myself that is always a savin and exceptin your noble onnur as in rite and duty boundin And then as to forin parts Why lawjus mighty
Your noble onnur has em at your fingurs ends The temple will stand blow or snow a there it will be Ill a answer for that a shillins worth for every shillin but ast for the money a squitterd a here and a there in forin parts what will your most noble onnur ever see for that I most umbelly condysend to beg and beesiege your good and kind onnurs noble pardn for all this audacious interpolation of and by witch any but your most disrespectfool onnur would say wus no better but so much mag but I hopes and trusts your onnur as you always have bin henceforth in times passt is in the mind a well to take what a well is meant
And so I wonce and again most perrumptallee
beg leave in all lowliness by the grace and blessin of God in his infinit goodness and mercy to superscribe meself
ABIMELECH HENLEY
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
FRANK HENLEYs accident has necessarily delayed our journey for a fortnight nay it was within an ace of being delayed for ever and Would you think it possible by the artful remonstrances of this Abimelech Henley I have been obliged to exert all my influence and all my rhetoric upon Sir
Arthur or it would have been entirely given up Rapacious and narrow in his own plans this wretch this honest Aby as my father calls him would not willingly suffer a guinea to be spent except in improvements that is not a guinea which should not pass through his hands A letter from him to Sir Arthur has been the cause of this contest
I hope however my dear that Sir Arthurs affairs are not in so bad a train as your fears expressed in your letter of the third cause you to imagine Should they be so what will become of my brother A mere man of fashion Active in the whole etiquette of visiting dressing driving riding fencing dancing gaming writing cards of compliment
and all the frivolous follies of what by this class of people is called the world but indolent in or more properly incapable of all useful duties
I stand rather high in his opinion and he has done me the honour to consult me lately on a family affair The Edgemoor estate of eight hundred per annum is entailed on him as the heir of St Ives by my grandfathers will with right of possession at the age of twentyfour Sir Arthur I suppose does not find it convenient to abridge his income so materially and has been endeavouring to persuade him that it is his duty and interest not to insist upon possession at least for the present My brother is not pleased with the proposal and has complaisantly written to ask my
opinion with an evident determination to follow his own he having now almost completed his twentyfourth year My answer was an attempt I fear a vain one to call to his mind the true use of money and unless he should have found the art of employing it worthily I advised him to shew his filial affection and oblige Sir Arthur
I can prophesy however that he will have no forbearance Not to mention debts he has too many imaginary and impatient wants to submit to delay Neither have I any great desire that he should being convinced that the want of money is the only impediment that can put a stop to Sir Arthurs improvements
But this honest Aby—The same post that brought me your letter of the
eleventh brought one for Sir Arthur and while I was meditating on the contents of yours and not a little chagrined at the confirmation of your intelligence concerning the mortgage—Chagrined that my father should be the instrument the tool of such a fellow chagrined that his family should be in danger and himself made a jest—while I was considering what were the best means if there were any of inducing Sir Arthur to abandon projects so foolish and so fatal Laura came running with the news that our journey to France was all over that orders to that effect had been given and that a chaise was to be
at the door in an hour to take Sir Arthur back to WenbourneHill
This incident in my then temper of mind produced its full effect I knew Sir Arthurs way I knew he would not willingly see me himself and immediately suspecting that his letter was from honest Aby I determined if possible he should not escape me He was in his own room and how to draw him out An hour would soon be gone I therefore employed an artifice which on after recollection I am convinced was wrong very wrong I went into the drawingroom and bade the footman go to him and announce Miss Wenbourne I have a maiden aunt of that name whom I was christened after who lives in London and whom I believe
you never saw The trick succeeded and Sir Arthur came into the drawingroom He looked disconcerted at seeing me and the following dialogue began
Heydey Anna Where is your aunt
Sir I am afraid I have done an unjustifiable thing My conscience then first smote me with a conviction that what I had persuaded myself was a defensible artifice was neither more nor less than a direct falsehood which of all crimes you know I think one of the most mean hateful and pernicious The just confusion I felt had nearly ruined my cause
Why—What—What do you mean—Where is your aunt
She is not here sir It was I who wished to speak to you
You And send in your aunts name
My name is Wenbourne sir
Your name is St Ives miss
I feel sir how exceedingly culpable I am and perhaps do not deserve that you should pardon me My father began to suspect the reason of my wishing to speak with him and did not know whether good nature or ill would serve his cause the best I perceived him cast an eye toward the door
This is extraordinary—Very extraordinary upon my soul
I saw it was time to recover my spirits I have heard something which I scarcely can believe to be true sir
What have you heard What have you heard
That you are going back to WenbourneHill
Well what then
And that you do not intend we should visit France
Who told you so
The servants have orders to that effect
The servants are a parcel of busy blockheads
What can have occasioned you sir to change your opinion so suddenly
My affairs He looked again toward the door but he felt it was too late and that he must now either defend or abandon his cause The journey will be too expensive
If sir the journey would in the least embarrass your affairs and if I did not daily see you entering into expences so
infinitely greater than this I would not answer a word to such an argument I think it my duty to be as careful of your property as you yourself could be and for that reason have often wished I could prevail on you in some measure to alter your plans
I have no doubt miss of your prodigious wisdom you remind me of it daily Your plans to be sure would as you say be infinitely better than mine When you are married or I am dead you may do as you please but in the mean time suffer me to act for myself I do not choose to be under tutelage
I am sorry my dear papa to see that I offend you but indeed I mean the very reverse Indeed I do It is my
zeal for your interest my love of you I ventured to take his hand that oblige me to speak—
And plainly to tell me you do not approve of my proceedings
Plainly to tell you the truth because I believe it to be my duty
Upon my word A very dutiful daughter I thought the duty of children was to obey the wills of their parents
Obedience—Pardon my sincerity sir—Obedience must have limits Children should love and honour their parents for their virtues and should cheerfully and zealously do whatever they require of them which is not in itself wrong
Of which children are to judge
Yes sir of which children are to judge
A fine system of obedience truly
They cannot act without judging more or less be they obedient or disobedient and the better they judge the better will they perform their duty There may be and there have been mistaken parents who have commanded their children to be guilty even of crimes
And what is that to me Upon my word you are a very polite young lady A very extraordinarily polite miss
God forbid my dear papa that you should imagine I think you one of those parents
I really dont know nor dont care
madam what you think me—My plans indeed—Disapproved by you
If I saw any person under a dangerous mistake misled wronged preyed upon by the selfinterested should I not be indolent or cowardly nay should I not be criminal if I did not endeavour to convince such a person of his error And what should I be if this person were my father
Upon my honour miss you take intolerable liberties The license of your tongue is terrible
It were better sir that I should subject myself to your displeasure and make you think unkindly of me than that others who pretend to be your servants and your humble but friendly advisers
should injure—should—I know not what We have often heard of stewards who have acted the mortgagee to their own masters This hint was a thunder stroke Sir Arthur was wholly disconcerted His mind apparently made several attempts to recover itself but they were all ineffectual
Well well—I I—I know what the meaning of all this is You—You are vexed at being disappointed of your journey—But make yourself easy child you shall go you shant be disappointed
Tis true sir I wish to visit Paris but not if it will be in the least inconvenient to you in money affairs Though I own I should indeed be vexed to see the small sum you had appropriated for
this journey wrested from you to throw up a hill or build a fantastic temple in some place where its very situation would render it ridiculous
Upon my word—Was ever the like of this heard—Dont I tell you you shall go
Indeed sir going is but a small part of the subject there is another point which if I could but gain would give me infinitely more pleasure
Pshaw Girl I cant stay to argue points with you now I tell you you shall go I give you my word you shall go and so lets have no more of it—Do you hear Anna I am too old to be schooled I dont like it Mind me I dont like it
I am very sorry sir that I cannot
find words to speak the truth which would be less offensive
I tell you again there is no truth to be spoken Have not I promised you shall go Theres an end of the business You shall go
And away went Sir Arthur apparently happy to get rid both of me and himself that is of the disagreeable ideas which as he thought I had so impertinently raised You blamed me in your last for not exerting myself sufficiently to shew him his folly You see the sufficiently is still wanting Perhaps I have not discovered the true mode of addressing myself to Sir Arthurs passions For though my remonstrances have often made him uneasy I cannot perceive that they have ever produced
conviction And yet I should suppose that a certain degree of momentary conviction must be the result of such conversations But the fortitude to cast off old habits and assume new is beyond the strength of common mortals
Frank Henley is a favourite with you and very deservedly But in answer to the surprise in your former my dear that he has never engaged my affections as well as to the cautionary kind hints in your two last for so I understand them let me say that had I imagined love to be that unconquerable fatality of which I have been speaking I do not know what might have happened but having been early convinced that a union between him and me must be attended with I know not what scenes of wretchedness
in short knowing the thing in a certain sense to be impossible it has always been so considered by me and therefore I have no reason to think myself in any danger Doubts occasionally rise in my mind but in general soon disappear Should they return I will not conceal them
I remember it was a remark of yours that Admiration is the mother of love So it is of love such as I bear to my Louisa and of such perhaps as angels might be supposed to bear to angels I admire Frank Henley greatly ardently admire him yet I certainly do not love that is I certainly do not permit myself to feel any of those anxieties alarms hopes fears perturbations and endearments which we are told are inseparable from
that passion I extinguish I suffocate them in their birth
I am called for Adieu my ever dear Louisa
A W ST IVES
SIR ARTHUR ST IVES TO ABIMELECH HENLEY
London Grosvenor Street
I HAVE received your letter good Abimelech and own your reasoning has its force Much is yet to be done to WenbourneHill Year after year I have said—This shall be the last we will now bring affairs to a finish But improvement is my delight walking
talking sitting standing or lying waking or sleeping I can think of nothing else We live you know honest Aby only to amend so that instead of concluding I find more things to do at present than ever
I have the wilderness very much at heart but the soil is excellent and I scarcely know Aby how we shall make the land sufficiently barren Yet it would have a fine effect Yes that it certainly would and we will try our utmost The hermitage too at the far end The mossgrown cell Aby With a few scattered eglantines and wild roots We will plant ivy round the three old oaks and bring a colony of owls to breed Then at the bottom of all a grotto Oh it will be delicious
Shells will be expensive for we are not within forty miles of the sea But no matter it must and it shall be done for I have set my heart on it Nay from what you said to me honest Aby knowing you to be a careful thrifty fellow full of foresight I was so warm in the cause that I had determined to take your advice and renounce or defer the journey to France but the blabbing servants got a hint of the matter and it came to my daughters ears So for peace and quietness sake I think I must een indulge her and take her a short trip to the continent But we will go no further than the neighbourhood of Paris Beside I wish for my own part to see how the country is laid out I am desirous to
know whether all France has any thing to equal WenbourneHill
And yet Aby I find it is impossible to please every body You know what continual improvements I have been making for these last twenty years for you have superintended them all I have planted one year and grubbed up the next built and pulled down dug and filled up again removed hills and sent them back to their old stations and all from a determination to do whatever could be done And now I believe there are no grounds in all England so wooded and shut in as those of WenbourneHill notwithstanding its situation on a very commanding eminence We are surrounded by coppices groves
espaliers and plantations We have excluded every vulgar view of distant hills intervening meadows and extensive fields with their insignificant green herbage yellow lands and the wearisome eternal waving of standing corn
And yet Aby after having done all this comes me Sir Alexander Evergreen and very freely tells me that we have spoiled WenbourneHill buried ourselves in gloom and darkness and shut out the finest prospects in all England Formerly the hall could be seen by travellers from the road and we ourselves had the village church in view all of which we have now planted out of sight Very true but instead of the parish steeple have we not steeples of our own in every direction And instead of
the road with the Gloucestershire hills and lessening clouds in perspective have we not the cedar quincunx Yet see the curse of obstinacy and want of taste Would you think it Aby Of this Sir Alexander complains
It is in vain to tell him that we are now all within ourselves that every body is surprised to see how snug we are and that nobody can suspect so many temples and groves and terraces and ascents and descents and clumps and shrubberies and vistas and glades and dells and canals and statues and rocks and ruins are in existence till they are in the very midst of them And then Oh how have I enjoyed their admiration Nothing is so great a pleasure to me as to bring a gentleman of taste who knows
how to be struck with what he sees and set him down in the middle of one of my great gravel walks For all the world allows Abimelech that our gravel walks at WenbourneHill are some of the broadest the straightest and the finest in the kingdom
Yet observe how men differ Abimeech Sir Alexander wants me to turf them over He says that where you may have the smooth verdure gravel walks are ridiculous and are only tolerable in common pathways where continual treading would wear away the greensward But I know what has given him such a love for the soft grass Sir Alexander is gouty and loves to tread on velvet
Beside he is a cynic He blames all
we have done and says he would render one of the deserts of Arabia the garden of Eden with the money we have wasted in improving WenbourneHill which he affirms before we touched it was one of the most beautiful spots in the three kingdoms
I confess Aby that if as I said I did not know him to be a cynic I should be heartily vexed But it either is or at any rate it shall be one of the most beautiful spots in the three kingdoms ay or in the whole world Of that I am resolved so go on with your work Abimelech Do not be idle The love of fame is a noble passion and the name of Arthur St Ives shall be remembered at WenbourneHill long after his remains are laid in their kindred clay as the poet says
I desired your son Frank to accompany us to London He is a spirited young fellow and behaved well on the road where he had an affair with a highwayman and got a slight wound but he is in no danger He is a fine fellow a brave fellow and an honour to you honest Aby
Some grounds which I saw on my journey with water purling meandering and occasionally dashing down a steep declivity or winding along a more gentle descent as it happened to be suggested an idea to me It came into my mind that as we lie high if we had but a lake sufficiently large on the top of the hill we could send the water down in rivulets on every side But then the difficulty struck me how to get it
up again Perhaps it may be overcome It would have a charming effect and we will think of it hereafter
When you have received my address at Paris do not fail to let me know once a week how every thing proceeds Be particular in your accounts and do not be afraid of wearying me My heart is in my grounds and my improvements and the more places and things you name the more pleasure you will give me Write to me too concerning my herd of deer my Spanish sheep my buffaloes my Chinese pheasants and all my foreign live stock
I will make my journey as short as possible it shall not be long before I will revisit my WenbourneHill To own the truth honest Aby after reading
your letter I had ordered the chaise to the door to come down again but Anna St Ives would not hear of it so I was obliged to yield But as I tell you my heart is with you WenbourneHill is never out of my mind
I could wish you to be cautious in your communications Abimelech concerning our money matters My daughter gave me a hint about the last mortgage which I did not half like Children think they have a right to pry into a fathers expences and to curb and browbeat him if the money be not all spent in gratifying their whims Be more close Abimelech if you would oblige me
ARTHUR ST IVES
LOUISA CLIFTON TO ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES
RoseBank
I AM excessively angry with myself my dear Anna I have not treated you with the open confidence which you deserve because I have had improper fears of you I have doubted lest an excess of friendship and generosity should lead you into mistake and induce
you to think well of my brother rather for my sake than for his own But the more I reflect the more I am convinced that duplicity never can be virtue
Your last letter has brought me to a sense of this The noble sincerity with which you immediately accused yourself for having practised an artifice which I like you do not think was innocent because artifice cannot be innocent has taught me how I ought to act and Sir Arthurs caprice is an additional incitement
I have for some time known that it has been very much desired by my mamma to see you and Coke Clifton united She mentioned her wish to Sir Arthur and he seemed pleased with the idea She did me the honour to
consult me and I opposed precipitate proceedings and strenuously argued that all such events ought to take their natural course
This was the origin of your present journey to Paris and I consequently was enjoined secrecy of the propriety of which I doubted at the moment I am now convinced that secrets are always either foolish or pernicious things and that there ought to be none
The fickleness of Sir Arthur however relative to this journey both surprises and pains me It shews his weakness as well as the power of his favourite Abimelech to be greater than even I imagined and my former thoughts were not very favourable After having concerted this plan with my mamma and
after preparing and proceeding a part of the way I can scarcely imagine what excuse he would have made to her
His mentioning my brother to you likewise surprised me In conversing with my mamma I had told her that if such an event were to take place it were desirable that you and my brother should become acquainted before any hint or proposal ought to be made to you I at present believe this to have been wrong and weak advice but it prevailed and the arrangement was that my mamma should write to Coke Clifton to direct his route through Paris that he should be there at a fixed time to transact some pretended business for her that Sir Arthur and you should make a journey thither on a party of pleasure
which we all knew would be agreeable to you and that you and my brother should meet as if by accident But it appears that Sir Arthur when he has any favourite project in view can scarcely forbear being communicative not from principle but from incontinence
With respect to my brother having told you all that has passed I have only to add it is my earnest advice that you should be careful to put no deception on yourself but to see him as he is His being the brother of your friend cannot give him dignity of mind if he have it not already Were I a thousand times his sister I could not wish him another wife so deserving as my Anna But sister shall be no motive with me to make me desirous of seeing persons
united whose sentiments and souls may be dissimilar Had I not so much confidence in your discernment and truth to yourself I should not be without uneasiness My opinion is that the parties should themselves reciprocally discover those qualities which ought mutually to fit them for the friendship of marriage Is not that the very phrase Anna the friendship of marriage Surely if it be not friendship according to the best and highest sense in which that word is used marriage cannot but be something faulty and vicious
I know how readily you will forgive the wrong I have done you by this concealment because you will perceive I acted from well meant but mistaken sentiments I have told my mamma my
present thoughts and have shewed her all the former part of this letter which she approves Her affection for me makes her delight in every effort of my mind to rise superior to the prejudices that bring misery into the world and I often fear lest this affection should deprive her of that force and acumen which in other instances would be ready to detect error whenever it should make its appearance
I need not tell my Anna how tenderly she joins with me in wishing her a safe and pleasant journey All other matters she entirely commits to my Annas penetration and discretion
Adieu
L CLIFTON
P S
My brother is not rich but has
great expectations This as I imagine occasioned Sir Arthur to receive the proposal with pleasure and my mamma tells me they had some talk of settlements He was exceedingly warm and active in contriving this journey for a few days after which I thought I observed his ardour abate And the probability is that Abimelech from the first had opposed the excursion but that further conversations with my mamma and the pleasure which the projected journey had given you kept Sir Arthur to his purpose I own I began to suspect that should such a match take place the recollection of parting with money which he would willingly have expended on improvements had influenced his conduct and it is some relief to
hope that he was rather acted upon than acting if he really did feel any wish to retract How far he may be or may have been acted upon in other instances as well as this is still a further question
I cannot shake off a doubt which hangs on my mind though I have been debating all morning whether I ought to mention it or be silent I suspect that you yourself have not solved it entirely to your own satisfaction Frank Henley—It is I think indubitable that he loves you—He would make you happier than perhaps any other man could upon earth Be not swayed by your affection for me beware of any such weakness That you could love him if you would permit yourself nay that you
are obliged to exert your whole force not to love him I am convinced You are conscious of it yourself—Is your decision just—Indeed it is a serious question What is the magnitude of the evil which would result from such a union and what the good Enquire—I give no opinion There is a mist before my eyes and I dare not give any till I can see more distinctly Think be just and resolve Your own judgment ought to determine you
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London GrosvenorStreet
OLIVER what are we What is man What is virtue What is honour—My pride has received a wound much more acute than that which the ball of the highwayman inflicted on my body—I have had money palmed upon me—Money—A man cannot behave as he
ought and as it would be contemptible not to behave but he must be paid His vices are paid His virtues are paid—All is mercenary I to be sure must be one of the number—A twenty pound bank note I tell thee forced upon me by Sir Arthur—No no—Not by him—He never could have made me accept what I supposed falsely however as fact and reflection have since led me to suspect it was mean and degrading to accept She only could prevail She whose commands are irresistible and who condescended to entreat—Her eye glistening with a tear which she with difficulty detained in its beauteous orbit she entreated—There was no opposing such intercession Her eloquence was heavenly God be praised that it
was so For as it has happened I am persuaded it has preserved a poor distressed creature from phrensy—Have patience and I will tell thee
I had removed my penitent and had been taking a short airing in the park and as I was returning I saw a crowd collected in a court Led by curiosity to enquire what was the matter I was told that two men had just been pursuing a third over the roofs of the neighbouring houses and that having been obliged to descend through a trapdoor they had followed him where it was supposed he had at last been taken I asked what his crime was but nobody knew Some believed him to be a thief some thought it was a pressgang and others conjectured they were bailiffs
It was not long however before a decent welllooking and indeed handsome young woman with a fine child in her arms came running up the court made her way through the crowd with terror in her countenance and with the most piercing cries demanded—
Where is he—Where is my dear Harry—Who has seen him Where is he
Some of the people pointed out the house She knocked violently continued her cries and lamentations and at last gained admittance
Her grief was so moving so sympathetic that it excited my compassion and made me determine to follow her Accordingly I elbowed my way though I felt that I rather disturbed the surgeons dressing but that was a trifle
I followed her up stairs without ceremony With respect to her affection
masterless passion had swayed her to its mood
—she was not to be repulsed
The prisoner and his pursuers had descended to the second floor in which the poor fugitive had endeavoured to seek refuge but not soon enough to find protection from the bailiffs as they proved and as he knew them to be Never didst thou see terror so strong nor affection so pathetic as this excellent young woman his wife discovered Excellent I am certain she is She wrung her hands she fell on her knees she held up her babe and finding these were ineffectual she screamed agonizing prayers to save her
Harry The idea she had conceived of the loss of liberty and the miseries of a prison must have been dreadful But tears and prayers and cries were vain she was pleading to the deaf or at least to the obdurate
As soon as the violence of her grief gave a momentary respite I enquired what the sum was for which he was in thraldom and found it to be sixteen pounds beside costs It was not a debt originally contracted by himself it was for a note in which he had joined to serve his wifes brother It seems they are a young couple who by their industry have collected a trifling sum with which they have taken a small shop I did not ask of what kind She serves her customers and he follows his trade
as a journeyman carpenter It did not a little please me to hear the young creature accuse her brother of being false to his friend while the husband defended him and affirmed it could be nothing but necessity I could perceive however that she grieved to think her brother was not so good as she could have wished him to be
The horros of a jail were so impressed so rooted in her fancy that she was willing to sell any thing every thing she would give them all she had so that her Harry might not be dragged to a damp foul dungeon to darkness bread and water and starving Thou canst not imagine the volubility with which her passions flowed and her terrors found utterance from the hope that it was not
possible for Christian hearts to know all this and not be moved to pity
I am well persuaded however that had I not been there those good Christians the bailiffs would have paid no other attention to her panic than to see how it might be turned to profit The miscreants talked of five guineas for the pretended risk they should run in giving him a fortnight to sell his effects to the best advantage They too could recommend a broker a very honest fellow—By what strange gradations Oliver can the heart of man become thus corrupt The harpies looked hatefully
Luckily I happened to have the twenty pound note which pride had bidden me reject with so much scorn in my pocket Thou I am certain wilt not
ask what I did with it I immediately tendered those same Christians I told thee of their money The rascals were disappointed and would have been surly but a single look silenced their insolence One of them was dispatched according to form to see that there were no detainers and being paid they then set their prisoner free
Now if thou thinkest Oliver thou canst truly figure to thyself the overflowing gratitude of the kind young creature the wife thou art egregiously mistaken She fell on her knees to me she blessed me prayed for me and said I was an angel from heaven sent to save her dear Harry from destruction she kissed him hugged God blessed and half smothered her heavenly infant as she truly called it
with kisses nay she kissed me—in spirit Oliver—I could see she did ay and in spirit I returned her chaste caresses
She entreated me with so much humble love and gratitude to come and see her poor house which I had saved and to tell her my name that she might pray for me the longest day she had to live that I could not forbear gratifying her so far as to go with her As for my name I told her it was man The quick hussey understood me for she replied—No it was angel
I found her house like her person neat and in order What is still better her Harry seems a kind good young man and alive to as well as deserving of her affection
Wouldst thou think it Oliver—The pleasure I had communicated had reverberated back upon myself yet the fight of a couple thus happy gave birth to a thought of such exquisite pain that— Something shot across my brain—I know not what—But it seemed to indicate I should never be so mated
Still this money Oliver—Prithee be at the trouble to examine the question and send me thy thoughts for I have not been able to satisfy myself What is the thing called property What are meum and tuum Under what circumstances may a man take money from another I would not be proud neither would I render myself despicable
Thou seest how I delight to impart my joys and griefs to thee Thou tellest me
thou partakest them and judging by myself I cannot but believe thee Tell me when thou art weary of me I have long and often been weary of myself
Yet she is very kind to me and so kind that I have lately been betrayed into hopes too flattering too ecstatic to be true Oh Should she ever think of me Were it only possible she ever should be mine—The pleasure is too exquisite It is insupportable—Let me gaze and wonder at humble distance in silence and in awe—Do not call me abject—Yet if I am so do tell me all that ought to be told It is not before her rank that I bend and sink Being for being I am her equal but who is her equal in virtue—Heavens What a smile did she bestow on me when I
took the money I mentioned to thee It has sunken deep deep in my heart Never can it be forgotten Never Never
Peace be with thee
F HENLEY
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London GrosvenorStreet
MUST I be silent Must I not tell my Louisa how infinitely her candor and justice delight me With the voice of a warning angel she bids me enquire examine my heart and resolve I think I have resolved and from reasons which I believe are not to be overcome Yet I will confess my opinion strong as it is
receives violent attacks as Louisa you will be convinced when you have read the whole of this letter
My friend cautions me against being partial even in favour of her brother Such a friend is indeed worthy to advise and I will remember her precepts This brother may be a degenerate scion from a noble stock yet I can hardly think the thing possible That he may have fallen into many of the mistakes common to the world in which he has lived is indeed most likely But the very qualities which you describe in him speak an active and perhaps a dignified nature
We have duties to fulfil Few opportunities present themselves to a woman educated and restrained as women unfortunately
are of performing any thing eminently good One of our most frequent and obvious tasks seems to be that of restoring a great mind misled by error to its proper rank If the mind of Clifton should be such shall I cowardly decline what I believe it to be incumbent on me to perform Let him be only such as I expect and let me be fortunate enough to gain his affections and you shall see Louisa whether trifles shall make me desist
What high proofs of courage perseverance and of suffering do men continually give And shall we wholly renounce the dignity of emulation and willingly sign the unjust decree of prejudice that mind likewise has its sex and
that women are destitute of energy and fortitude
But Frank Henley—Let me not hide a thought from my Louisa He is indeed worthy of being loved every day more worthy I have a new story to tell which will be more effectual praise than any words of mine Like you I am persuaded he has some affection for me I am not insensible to his worth and virtues I ought not to be Were I to indulge the reveries into which I could easily fall I might be as much misled by passion as others who are so ready to complain and pity themselves for being in love But a wakeful sense of the consequences is my safeguard It cannot be I should render my father
my relations and friends miserable I should set a bad example to my sex I who aim at shewing them mind is superior to sex
Such are the thoughts that protect me from the danger His mental excellence perhaps I love as truly as heart could wish But as the lover who is to be the husband no I will not suffer my thoughts to glance in that direction I might but I will not Nothing but a conviction that my principles are wrong shall ever make me and that conviction I hold to be impossible
Do not imagine I am guilty of the mistake of supposing myself his superior Far the reverse The tale which I am now about to relate will inform you better of the true state of my feelings
You must know my dear that on our arrival in town Sir Arthur with my help prevailed on Frank Henley to accept a twenty pound bill that he might have the means of gratifying his inclinations and enjoying the pleasures which at his age it is natural he should wish to enjoy These means I had but too good reason to be convinced had been denied him by his father which I suspected to be and am now satisfied was the true reason that Frank refused to attend us on our journey
The youth has quite pride enough my dear he is desirous to confer but not to accept obligations is ready enough to give but not to receive As if he had not only a right to monopolize virtue but to be exempt from the wants
which are common to all and to supply which men form themselves into societies He seems to shrink with exquisite pain from the acceptance of money However I was determined to conquer and conquer I did Nor can I say considering them as I do that I was sorry to offend the false feelings even of Frank Henley for whom I have aninfinite esteem
After receiving this present he accompanied me two or three times to those public places to which crowns and half guineas gain admittance and as you may imagine was far from appearing insensible of the powers of poetry and music Suddenly however he refused to be any more of such parties for which I own I could divine no reason
I knew he had been educated in habits of oeconomy and therefore could not suppose generous though I knew him to be that he had squandered away his pocketmoney in so short a time I endeavoured both to rally and to reason but in vain he was positive even to obstinacy and I rightly conjectured there must be some cause for it which I had not discovered
You have heard me speak I believe my dear of Mrs Clarke as of a careful good woman and a great favourite with my dear mamma when living She was then our housekeeper in the country but has lately been left in the town house because the furniture is too valuable to be entrusted to a less attentive person This Mrs Clarke had a
sister whose name was Webb and who left a son and a daughter who are both married The son as you will soon hear has been a wild and graceless fellow but the daughter is one of the most agreeable and engaging young creatures I think I ever saw
Yesterday my good Mrs Clarke and her niece were shut up together in close conversation for a considerable time and I perceived that their cheeks were swelled their eyes red and that they had been crying violently I almost revere Mrs Clarke as my mother because of the excellence of her heart and the soundness of her understanding I therefore could not forbear earnestly enquiring whether it were possible for me to remove her cause of grief for
grieved I told her I could plainly perceive she was She burst into tears again on my questioning her and endeavoured to express feelings that were too big for utterance Turning to her niece she said—
I must inform my dear young lady
For Gods sake dont For the Lords sake dont
cried the terrified creature
I must
replied the aunt
It is proper
He will have no mercy shewn him He will be hanged
exclaimed the other in an agony
You do not know this lady
said the aunt
Indeed she does not
added I
if she supposes I would have any creature upon earth hanged
Retire Peggy
said the aunt
while I relate the vile the dreadful tale
No no For mercys sake no
replied
the niece
I must stay and beg and pray and down on my knees for my brother He is a wild and a wicked young man but he is my brother
Pray let her stay
said I to the aunt
And fear nothing my kindhearted Peggy Be assured I will not hurt a hair of your brothers head I will do him good if I can but no injury
The God of Heaven bless and reward your angelic ladyship
cried the half frantic grateful Peggy
Mrs Clarke attempted to begin her story She was almost suffocated I never heard so heartrending a groan as she gave when she came to the fatal sentence Would you believe it Louisa This nephew of the worthy Mrs Clarke this brother of the good Peggy is the
very highwayman who shot Frank Henley
His benevolent aunt has been with him for he is still under the surgeons hands and he has confessed to her I am angry with myself Louisa to find I wonder at it he has confessed that the brave the humane the nobleminded Frank has visited him several times and has set the folly of his wicked pursuits in so true and so strong a light that the man protests with the utmost vehemence if he can but escape punishment for the faults he has committed he will sooner perish than again be guilty of his former crimes
The first time Frank visited him he gave the poor wretch a guinea and went himself in search of another lodging
for him as well to remove him from the knowledge of his wicked companions as to protect him from the forty pound hunters The man wants to escape over to the continent and appears to be so sincere in his resolves of reformation that Frank has undertaken to furnish him with the means
You cannot imagine Louisa the heartfelt praises which the worthy Mrs Clarke bestowed on the youth And Peggy said that she hoped she should some time or another live to see him that she might fall down and kiss his footsteps But added she with great ardor I find indeed there are very good men in the world
Still there appeared something enigmatical to me between Frank and the
money account I could not conceive how he should want the means immediately to furnish such a sum as would have been sufficient for the poor fugitive And this again reminded me how assiduously Frank had lately avoided every occasion of expence
While we were in the midst of our discourse who should enter the room but Frank Never was I present at such a scene—
Good God Almighty
exclaimed Peggy the moment she saw him
This is he This is the very blessed dear gentleman that saved my poor Harry from those terrible jailors
Is it possible
cried Mrs Clarke
It is it is he He himself
said the fullhearted Peggy falling down on her knees and catching the flap of his
coat which she kissed with inconceivable enthusiasm
Poor Frank did not know which way to look Good deeds are so uncommon and so much the cause of surprise that virtue blushes at being detected almost as deeply as vice I knew Frank had a noble heart and I own Louisa I was not much amazed when Peggy with abundance of kind expressions and a flow of simple eloquence related the manner in which Frank had saved her husband from the bailiffs by paying a debt which with costs amounted to upward of eighteen pounds
I did not however forbear severely to reprove myself for having dared so much as to imagine that a youth with
such high virtues could not in a city like London find opportunities of expending so small a sum as twenty pounds in acts of benevolence I ought at least to have supposed the thing probable yet it never once entered my mind
The thanks blessings and prayers of Peggy were endless Finding him not only to be what she knew the man who relieved her from the most poignant distress but likewise the vanquisher and the saviour of her brother she said and protested she was sure there was not such another angel upon earth She was sure there was not Frank was ashamed of and almost offended at her incessant praise It was so natural and so proper for him to act as he did that
he is surprised to find it can be matter of wonder
I must insist however upon seeing him reimbursed and I persuade myself there is one thought which will make him submit to it quietly I have but to remind him that the good of others requires that men who so well know the use of it should never be without money
Adieu I have not time to write more at present—Yet I must for I ought to add that though I thought myself so fully convinced when I began this letter concerning Frank and the only right mode of acting doubts have several times intruded themselves upon me while I have been writing I will
think when the fancy is not so busy as at present and when I have thought do not fear my resolution
Ever most affectionately yours A W ST IVES
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London GrosvenorStreet
IT is an intolerably strange thing Oliver that a man cannot perform the mere necessary duties of humanity without being supposed almost a prodigy Where is the common sense I will not say delicacy which should teach people that such suppositions are an insult not only to the person but to all mankind
I am young I grant and know but little of the barbarity which it is pretended is universal I cannot think the accusation true Or if it be I am convinced it must be the result of▪ some strange perversion of what may be called the natural propensities of man I own I have seen children wrangle for and endeavour to purloin or seize by force each others apples and cherries and this may be a beginning to future rapacity But I know the obvious course of nature would be to correct instead of to confirm such mistakes I know too that there are individual instances of cruelty and insensibility But these surely are the exceptions and not the rule
I visited a man whose vices that is
whose errors and passions were so violent as to be dangerous to society and still more dangerous to himself Was it not my duty I thought myself certain of convincing him of his folly and of bringing back a lost individual to the paths of utility and good sense What should I have been had I neglected such an opportunity I have really no patience to think that a thing which it would have been a crime to have left undone should possibly be supposed a work of supererogation
I saw an industrious rising family on the brink of ruin and in the agonies of despair which were the consequences of an act of virtue and I was not selfish enough to prefer my own whims which I might choose to call pleasures to the
preservation of this worthy this really excellent little family And for this I am to be adored For no word is strong enough to express the fooleries that have been acted to me They were well meant True They were the ebullitions of virtue I do not deny it But either they are an unjust satire upon the world in general or it is a vile world I half suspect indeed it is not quite what it ought to be
In addition to all this I have been obliged to receive a sum equal to that which I thought it my duty to bestow This is the second time and perhaps thou wilt tell me I am not difficult to persuade Read the following dialogue which passed between me and the most angelic of Heavens creatures and judge
for thyself She is really a prodigy I never knew another mind of such uncommon powers So clear so collected so certain of choosing the side of truth and so secure of victory
I am an ass I am talking Arabic to thee I ought to have begun with informing thee of a circumstance which is in itself odd enough The highwayman and Peggy Pshaw The woman whose husband was arrested They are not only brother and sister but the nephew and niece of Mrs Clarke Think of that Oliver The nephew of so worthy a woman so audaciously wicked Well might the distressed Peggy express anger which I could perceive was heartfelt though she herself at that time knew not of this act But to my dialogue Listen to
the voice of my charmer and say whether she charm not wisely
You have made a generous and a noble use Frank of the small sum which you were so very unwilling to accept▪ She treats me with the most winning familiarity What does she mean Is it purposely to shew me how much she is at her ease with me and how impossible it is that any thing but civility should exist between us Or is it truly as kind as it seems Can it be Who can say Is it out of nature Wholly Surely surely not These bursting gleams of hope beget suspense more intolerable than all the blackness of despair itself
I acted naturally madam and I confess it gives me some pain to find it the subject of so much wonder
It is no subject of wonder to me Your inferiors in understanding I know would not act like you but the weak do not give law to the strong I own that I have been dull enough unjust enough not to suspect your true motive for refusing as you have done lately to accompany us to public places But this is a heavy penalty on you which an act of virtue ought not to incur
If it be a penalty madam I am sure it is one which you have too much generosity to wish to deprive me of the pleasure of paying
I understand your hint but I am not so generous as you think me for I am determined and you know what a positive girl I am to share both the penalty and the enjoyment with you
I beg your pardon madam but that cannot be
Oh But in spite of your serious and very emphatical air it must be
Excuse me madam I am certain you have too high a sense of justice to impose▪laws to which you yourself would not submit
Very true Prove me that and I am answered Nay so confident am I of the goodness of my cause that I will not require you to take up this Laying down another bank note of equal value with the former unless I can on the contrary prove it to be nothing but false pride or mistake which can induce you to refuse You perceive Frank I am not afraid of offending you by speaking the plain truth Pray tell me when
you saw the worthy couple whom you relieved in distress had you persisted in your refusal of the paltry bit of paper which I before prevailed on you to receive what would you have said to yourself what would have been your remorse when you found yourself unable to succour the unfortunate merely because you had been too proud to receive that which you wanted and which therefore you had no right to refuse You see Oliver she snatched my own sword from my side with which to dispatch me If thou art too dull to understand me consult my last letter You were ready to protect thought at the risk of your life those very persons at whose favours as they are falsely called your spirit is so equally ready to revolt Perhaps
in defending us you did no more than you ought but we cannot be ignorant how few are capable of doing so much And since you are thus prompt to perform all which the most austere morality can require so long as it shall be apparent to the world that your motives are not selfish proceed a step further disregard the world and every being in it that is disregard their mistakes and satisfied that your motives are pure defy the false interpretations to which any right action may subject you Neither while you are actually discharging the highest offices of humanity deny to others the right to fulfil some of the most trivial
I could not act otherwise than I did on both the occasions to which you allude
madam I believe it is our duty always to be guided by circumstances but not to be guilty of an impropriety because it is possible such circumstances may again occur
You are right We only differ concerning the meaning of the word Impropriety or propriety we shall come to presently You have promised your wounded penitent money to facilitate his escape and you have none
I have some trifling useless property madam
But you have a journey to make back to WenbourneHill according to your present intentions
Do you imagine madam I cannot fast for a day
Oh yes I doubt it not for a week
Frank to effect any great any laudable purpose But I must be plain with you It is ungenerous of you to wish to engross all virtue and sensibility Beside you have duties to perform to yourself which are as pressing as any you owe to society because they are to fit you for the social duties Hearken to the angel Oliver It is as much my duty at prefent to afford you the means which you want as it was yours to visit the wounded highwayman or aid the distressed Peggy You ought to suffer me to perform my duties both for my sake and your own You ought not to neglect while you are in London to seize on every opportunity which can tend to enlarge your faculties You have no common part to act and that you may act
it well you should study the beings with whom you are to associate You must not suffer any false feelings to unfit you for the high offices for the execution of which men like you are formed Didst thou ever hear such honeyed flattery Oliver Something more—You must accompany us to France
Madam—Impossible
Hear me Frank The journey will be of infinite service to you A mind like yours cannot visit a kingdom where the manners of the people are so distinct as those of the French must be from the English without receiving great benefit Your father is rich
That he denies madam
To you and you and I know why If your delicacy should object to a gift I
am sure it cannot with propriety to a loan Going with us your expences will in fact be only casual I can supply you with such money as you want which you may hereafter repay me when I may perhaps be glad that I have such a debtor
My fathers property madam is of his own acquiring I have no legal claim upon it and it would be dishonest in me to spend that upon speculation which perhaps never may be mine
Yes to spend it in unworthy purposes would be dishonest But I again recur to your duties However since you are so tenacious on the subject I will become a usurer to pacify your feelings and you shall pay for risk Fifty pounds unless you meet with more Peggies
I dare say will bear you free It is twenty pounds more thou knowest than I asked of my father You shall give me eighty whenever you have a thousand pounds of your own
Madam—
Well well You shall give me a hundred—Very seriously It almost vexes me Frank to be refused so very slight a favour for I can read refusal and opposition in your eye But if you persist you will give me great pain for you will convince me that where your own passions are concerned you are not superior to the paltry prejudices by which the rest of the world are governed
I own madam my mind has had many struggles on the subject and I
am afraid as you say it has been too willing to indulge its prejudices and its pride But if you seriously think from your heart it is my duty to act in this case as you direct—
I do seriously solemnly and from my heart think it is your duty
Then madam I submit
Why thats my kind Frank As noble in this instance as in every other—I could love you for it if you would let me—In a moment my heart was alarmed I could feel myself change colour I am certain she saw my agitation her manner told me so for she instantly added with a kind of affectionate significance which I know not how to interpret— I would say as much to the
whole world but that it is a foolish world and wants the wit to conceive things truly as they are meant
She was gone in an instant smiling failing and her countenance brightening with heavenly radiance as she departed
What can this be Her words are continually resounding in my ears—She could love me if I would let her—Heavens—Love me—Let her—Let her—Oh—It is a foolish world—She fears its censures—Love me—Is it possible—Tell me Oliver is it possible—It wants the wit to conceive things truly as they are meant—Was this forbidding me to hope or was it blaming the worlds prejudices—I know not—Ah To what purpose warn the moth unless she could put
out the light—Oh blasphemy—Love me if I would let her—I cannot forget it Oliver—I cannot—Oh I could weep like a child at my own conscious debility
Why should I despair—With a modern miss a fine lady I might but not with her She has a mind superior to the world and its mistakes And am I not convinced there ought to be no impediment to our union Why should I doubt of convincing her She dare do all that truth and justice can demand—And she could love me if I would let her—Is not my despondency absurd—Even did I know her present thoughts and know them to be inimical to my passion what ought I to do Not to desert my own cause if it be a just one
and if it be the contrary there is no question I will make none Let me but be convinced of my error and it shall be renounced Yes Oliver I dare boldly aver—it shall But shall I forego a right so precious if it be mine—No Kingdoms shall not tempt me—Why is this timidity Why does my heart palpitate Why with inward whispers do I murmur thoughts which I dare not speak aloud Why do they rise quivering to my lips and there panting expire painfully struggling for birth but in vain Oh How poorly do I paint what so oppressively I feel
I would have thee read my whole heart I shudder to suppose it possible I should be a seducer Falsely to be thought so would trouble me but little
But tamely to yield up felicity so inestimable in compliance with the errors of mankind to renounce a union which might and ought to be productive of so much good is not this a crime—Speak without fear Shew me what is right Convince me then blame me if I quail
And now Oliver it is probable thou wilt not see me for these three months Delicate as these money favours are become in the transactions of men contemptible as they often are in themselves and unwilling as I have been to subject myself to them I am glad that she has conquered I would not have hesitated a moment for obligation if obligation it were to her would be heaven but she has her own wants
her own mode of doing good These I was very desirous not to abridge But since I must either comply or remain behind I am glad to have been so honourably vanquished
My father I know is willing enough I should go to France or where I please so that I do not ask him for money Indeed he told me as much He thinks it matters not what becomes of a fellow so useless and so idle as he supposes me to be However I have written to inform him of my intention and once more to remind him though certainly in vain of the manner in which he ought to act
Ever thine F HENLEY
P S
Thou art an unwilling sluggish correspondent I have just received thine of the 21st I find I am in no danger of reproof from thee for the acceptance of these pecuniary obligations but I half suspect from the tenor of thy letter that thou wouldst bid me take all that any body is willing to give Be just to thyself and thy friend Oliver shrink not from wholesome severity Let not thy suavity of temper or thy partial kindness to me sway thee to the right or the left lest hereafter I should make the fearful demand of my lost principles or at least relaxed and enfeebled from thee Beware of the kindness of thy heart
Do not omit my most respectful and kind acknowledgments to thy father and family
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London GrosvenorStreet
I HAVE had a strong contest my dear with our favourite youth to overcome what I believe I have convinced him is prejudice and I hope he is cured of false delicacy for the future He is to go with us to France and is no longer under the necessity of abstaining from
innocent and instructive amusements because he is possessed of sensibility and a high respect for virtue
But he had no sooner accepted this supply than away he was gone to his convert This I suspected For which reason I had previously dispatched Mrs Clarke to visit her nephew The good woman could not be prevailed on to receive any money for his relief urging that she was very capable of supplying him herself That being so I did not choose violently to contest the matter with her as I do not wish to encourage the most distant approaches to a spirit of avarice I only told her it would be unjust should she ever want money for useful and virtuous purposes if she did not apply to me and she with much
good sense answered she thought as I did and would certainly act accordingly She is a very worthy woman
She was with her nephew when Frank came in and the scene as described by her was affecting The poor culprit had been repeating all his obligations to the generous Frank praising his bravery and dwelling with a degree of conviction which gave Mrs Clarke great pleasure on the effects of goodness since it could render a man so undaunted so forgiving so humane and so much as he said like a saint You know my dear that saint in the language of such pèople does not mean an impostor who pretends to carry burning coals in his hands drive rusty nails into his legs adore a morsel of rotten wood or decayed
bone and pretend to work miracles or preach exclusive doctrines of faith and salvation A saint with them is a person more perfect in the discharge of the highest moral duties than they believe any other earthly being to be Let us accept their definition and enroll the name of Frank Henley in our calendar
Frank was disappointed and in some measure displeased that any person should offer his reformed friend as from the best of motives he called him money but himself and the reason he gave was not without its force This is a memorable epocha in the life of a mistaken man said he and no means which can move his mind to a better performance of his duties than he has hitherto attempted
should be left untried It is but natural that he should think more of me than of most other persons
I can think of no one else
Exclaimed the poor fellow with enthusiasm and the more cause he shall have to remember me with affection the more weight will the reasons have with him which I have urged
The culprit acknowledged that from ill advice vicious example and violent passions he had become very wicked But said he I must be wicked indeed if I could ever forget what this gentleman has said and done to save my family from shame and ruin and me from destruction and death
There is the greater reason to hope because Mrs Clarke says that he has
been what is called well educated his station in life considered and indeed of this I imagine she herself had taken care
Peggy came in and by her excess of gratitude and which is better of admiration for her hero she drove the over delicate Frank away This is one of his defects for which we must endeavour to find a remedy Men are not exposed to the fulsome praise which we unmarried females are calmly obliged to hear or be continually at war or Frank would be more patient Indeed he ought to be because in this instance the praises he receives are the effusions of persons who had never before seen virtue exert herself with so much ardour
Though the nephew be not an old or
hardened offender he has committed some depredations of the consequences of which were they proved upon him he himself is ignorant His accomplice has discovered his retreat another more private lodging has therefore been taken for him to which he is to remove with all possible caution And when he is sufficiently recovered which Mrs Clarke tells me will be soon he is then to depart for the continent and work at his trade which is that of a cabinetmaker English workmen are in high esteem abroad and he will easily find employment He is more than reconciled to labour he is eager to begin and as it appears does not want activity of mind of which the dangerous expedients to which he resorted are some proof
So much for the history of a highwayman which I think is at least as deserving of remembrance as that of many other depredators
I have been making some efforts to decide the question not of love but of duty Love must not be permitted till duty shall be known I have not satisfied myself so well as I could wish yet my former reasons seem invincible Ought my father and my family to be offended Ought I to set an example that might be pernicious Is it most probable that by opposing I should correct or increase the worlds mistakes The path before me is direct and plain ought I to deviate
In vain I fear should I plead his extraordinary
merit Would the plea remove the load of affliction with which I should overwhelm those who love me best At present they think well nay highly of me I sometimes have the power to influence them to good What power shall I have when they imagine I have disgraced both myself and them
Who ever saw those treated with esteem who are themselves supposed to be the slaves of passion And could the world possibly be persuaded that a marriage between me and the son of my fathers steward could ever originate on my part in honourable motives
Ought I to forget the influence of example Where is the young lady
being desirous to marry an adventurer or one whose mind might be as mean as his origin who would not suppose her favourite more than the equal of Frank For is not the power of discrimination lost when the passions are indulged And ought my name to be cited Ought they to be encouraged by any act of mine
Yet the opposing arguments are far from feeble His feelings are too strong to be concealed Perhaps the only weakness I can think him capable of is that of loving me For if love be contradictory to reason it is a weakness but should he answer that love and reason are inthis instance united we must come to proofs That he loves is too visible to admit of doubt I have seen the word
trembling as it were on his tongue I am almost certain that a silly thing which I said with a very different intention would have produced an avowal of his passion had I not added something to prevent it and hurried away
Well then Am I certain I am guilty of no injustice to him And why ought I not to be as just to him as to any other being on earth Who would be more just to me Who would be more tender more faithful more affectionate
I know not whether I ought to shrink from the vanity which seems annexed to the idea for I know not whether it be vanity but I cannot sometimes help asking myself whether the good that might result from the union of two strong minds mutually determined to exert
their powers for the welfare of society be not a reason superior even to all those I have enumerated
If this be so and if our minds really possess the strength which I am so ready to suppose I then know not what answer to give I reject the affectation of under estimating myself purposely that I may be called a modest humble young lady Humility I am persuaded though not so common is as much a vice as pride But while avoiding one extreme I must take care not to be guilty of another The question is embarrassing but I must not by delay suffer embarrassment to increase
With respect to your brother I can at present conclude nothing and can conjecture but little The idea which has
oftenest occurred and which I have before mentioned is the infinite pleasure of seeing an active mind in the full possession of its powers and of being instrumental in restoring that which mistake may have injured or in part destroyed It seems a duty pointed out to me attended perhaps with difficulty and it may be with danger but these increase its force And if so here is another argument to add to the heaviest scale
Yes It must be thus The more I examine and while I am writing perhaps I examine the best the more I am confirmed in my former decision
Pity for Frank ought not to be listened to It is always a false motive unless supported by justice Frank will never condescend to endeavour to incite
compassion it is not in his character He will rather assert his claims for so he ought I do not mean that a complaint will never escape him The best of us are not always so perfectly master of our thoughts as never to be inconsistent But his system will not be to win that by intercession which he could not obtain by fair and honourable barter The moment I have entirely satisfied and convinced myself I have no doubt of inducing him to behave as nobly on this as he has done on every other trying occasion
And now my dear Louisa for the present farewel I do not suppose I shall write again except a line to inform you of our safe arrival after having crossed the channel till we come to Paris I expect to
be amused by the journey Though I cannot but own I think that as far as amusement was concerned the good ladies under the reign of the Tudors who travelled twenty miles a day on a strong horse and a pillion that is when summer made the roads passable had much better opportunities for observation than we who shut up in our carriages with blinds to keep out the dust gallop further in two days and two nights than they could do in a month This hasty travelling when haste is necessary is a great convenience But nothing except the inordinate ardour of the mind to enjoy could induce people on a journey of pleasure to hurry as they do through villages towns and counties pass unnoticed the most magnificent
buildings and the most delightful prospects that forests rivers and mountains can afford and wilfully exclude themselves from all the riches of nature To look about us while thus surrounded seems to be a very natural wish And if so a portable closet or rather a flying watchbox is but a blundering contrivance
You know your Anna her busy brain will be meddling And perhaps she trusts too much to the pardoning affection of friendship
Once again adieu Yours ever and ever A W ST IVES
FRANK HENLEY TO ABIMELECH HENLEY
SIR
London GrosvenorStreet
THAT I may not appear to neglect any filial duty all of which it has been my most earnest wish to fulfil I write to inform you that at the request of the family I am preparing to accompany Sir Arthur to France From our last conversation I understood you had no
objection to the journey except that of furnishing me with money for it was your pleasure to remind me that a man so idle as you suppose I am may be or go any where without the world suffering the least loss I own did I imagine the same of myself it would make me wretched indeed
You thought proper sir to refuse me the small sum which I requested of you for this purpose I do not wish to wrest what you are unwilling to give You understand your own reasonings best but to me they appear to be either erroneous or incomprehensible I wished to explain to you what my plan of life was but you refused to hear me I had no sooner said that
I thought it my duty to study how I could best serve society than you angrily told me I ought first to think how I could best serve myself From a recollection of the past I am convinced this is a point on which we shall never have the same opinion For this I am sincerely sorry but as I hope not to blame
Suffer me however once more to repeat sir that though my young lady has kindly offered to furnish me with money I still think it wrong that you should permit me to accept her offer having as I am well convinced the means to supply me liberally yourself I assure you sir I would forbear to go or to lay myself under the necessity
of asking you for money were I not fully persuaded of its propriety In order to perform my duty in the world I ought to understand its inhabitants its manners and principally its laws with the effects which the different legislation of different countries has produced I believe this to be the highest and most useful kind of knowledge
Could I fortunately induce you to think as I do you certainly would not refuse my request Thirty pounds to you would be but a trifle But from my late failure I have so little hope that I rather write to execute a duty than with any expectation of success
I submit this to your consideration and have the greatest desire to prove myself your dutiful and affectionate son
F HENLEY
ABIMELECH HENLEY TO FRANK HENLEY
WenbourneHill
HEREs a hippistle Heres tantarums Heres palaver Want to pick my pocket Rob me And so an please ee hes my dutyfool and fekshinait son Duty fool indeed I say fool—Fool enough And yet empty enough God he knoweth You peery You a lurcher You know how to make your
3 farthins shine and turn your groats into guineas—Why youre a noodl A green horn A queezee quaumee pick thank pump kin A fine younk lady is willin to come down with the kole and the hulver headed hulk wants to raise the wind on his own father You face the philistins Why they will bite the nose off a your face
Thirty pounds too The mercy be good unto me Me thirty pounds Where must I get thirty pounds Does the joult head think I coin Would he have me go on the highway Who ever givd me thirty pounds Marry come up Thirty pounds Why I came to WenbourneHill with thrums immee pouch Not a brass farthin more And now show me the he or the hurr—
Shiner for shiner—Hool a cry hold first—Thof as to the matter of that younker why thats a nether here nor there thats a nothink to you dolt I never axt you for nothink Who begottee and sentee into the world but I Who found ee in bub and grub but I Didntee run about as ragged as any colt o the common and a didnt I find duddz for ee And what diddee ever do for me Diddee ever addle half an ounce in your life without being well ribb rostit Tongue pad me indeed Ferrit and flickur at me Rite your hippistles and gospels I a butturd my parsnips finely Am I a to be hufft and snufft o this here manner by a sir jimmee jingle brains of my own feedin and breedin Am I to be ramshaklt
out of the super nakullums in spite o my teeth Yea and go softly I crack the nut and you eat the kernel
I tellee once again youve an addle pate o your own Go to France to learn to dance to be sure Better stay at home and learn to transmogrify a few kinks picters into your pocket No marry come fairly Squire Nincompoop He would not a sifflicate Sir Arthur and advise him to stay at home and so keep the rhino for the roast meat He would not a take his cue a dunder pate A doesnt a know so much as his a b c A hasnt so much as a single glimm of the omnum gathrum in his noddl And pretends to hektur and doktur me Shave a cows tail and a goats chin an you want hair
And then again what did I say to ee about missee What did I say Didnt I as good as tellee witch way she cast a sheepz i That indeed would a be summut An you will jig your heels amunk the jerry cum poopz you might a then dance to some tune I a warruntee I a got all a my i teeth imme head What doesnt I know witch way the wind sets when I sees the chimblee smoke To be sure I duz as well with a wench as a weathercock Didnt I tellee yad a more then one foot ithe stirrup She didnt a like to leave her jack in a bandbox behind her and so missee forsooth forgot her tomtit and master my jerry whifflle an please you galloped after with it And then with a whoop he must amble to Lunnun
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and then with a halloo he must caper to France Shell deposit the rhino yet Nicodemus has a no notion of a what shed be at If youve a no wit o your own learn a little of folks that have some to spare Youll never a be worth a bawbee o your own sayin I tellee that And ast for whats mine why its my own So take me ritely now is your time to look about ee Then indeed If so why so be it yea ay and amen a Gods name say I The fool a held his mouth open and a down a droppt the plumb
Not after all that it would a be any sitch a mighty mirakkillus catch nether as I shall manage matters mayhap But thats a nether here nor there And so you know my mind Take it or leave it or let it alone Its all a
won to I Thof and I gives all this here good advice for nothink at all what do I get by it Give me but the wide world and one and 20 with 5 farthins ten fingurs and a tongue and a turn me adrift to morrow Ide a work my way Ide a fear nether wind nor weather For why Ide a give any man a peck of sweet words for a pint of honey What Shall I let the lock rustee for a want of a little oilin Havent I a told ee often and often that a glib tongue smooth and softly always with the grain is worth a kinks kinkddum
So mind a what ee be at Play your cards out kuninlee and then why if so be as thinks should turn up trumps why we shall see That is take me ritely I has a no notion that ee
should take it into your nobb noddl that I means to suppose that I shall come down with the dust No forsooth For what and for why and for wherefore We shall see—Why ay to be sure—But what shall we see Why we shall see how generous and how kappaishus my younker will be to his poor old father we shall see that
Not but if the ready be wantin plump do you see me down on the nail head and if Sir Arthur should a say as it must be so why so Mayhap we—But I tell ee again and again thats a nether here nor there Besides leave me to hummdudgin Sir Arthur Mind you your hitts with missee Ill a foistee fubb he
And so now show your affection for all this my lovin kindness and mercy
and crown my latter days with peace and joy witch nothink can xseed but the joys of heaven in his glory everlastin witch is a preparin for me and for all kristshun soles glory and onnur and power and praise and thanks givin world without end for ever and ever God be good unto us and grant us his salvation amen an it be his holy will
ABIMELECH HENLEY
THE HONOURABLE MRS CLIFTON TO HER SON COKE CLIFTON
RoseBank
I DIRECT this letter to you my dear son at Paris where it will either find you or lie at the bankers till your arrival A packet accompanies it which contains the accounts of your late uncle with Monsieur de Chateauneuf by which it appears there is a considerable balance
in his favour which as you know by will devolves to me
I hope when you have settled this business you will be disposed to return to England and that I shall once again have the happiness to see you before I die Do not imagine I speak of death to attract any false pity But my state of health obliges me to consider this serious event as at no great distance though I do not think myself in immediate danger
Sir Arthur St Ives and his lovely daughter will soon be in Paris They requested letters from me and among others I thought I could not recommend them to any one with more propriety than to my son There is an intimacy between our families at present
which was first occasioned by an affection which your sister Louisa and Anna St Ives conceived for each other and which has continually increased very much indeed to my satisfaction For before I saw this young lady I never met with one whom I thought deserving of the friendship of your sister Louisa whose strength of mind if I do not mistake is very extraordinary for her years Yet even I her mother and liable enough to be partial have sometimes thought she must cede the palm to her friend the charming Anna
My reason for writing thus is that you may be guilty of no mistakes of character which indeed I think is very unlikely and that you will shew Sir Arthur all possible respect as well as his daughter
in justice to yourself and as the friends of the family Your sister writes under the same cover and I cannot doubt whenever you read her letters but that you must receive very great satisfaction to find you have such a sister
I scarcely need tell you Clifton that though you have resided but little with me I feel all the fond affection of a parent that I am earnestly desirous to hear of your happiness and to promote it and that no pleasure which the world could afford to me personally would equal that of seeing you become a good and great man You have studied you have travelled you have read both men and books every advantage which the most anxious desire to form your mind couldprocure has been yours I
own that a mothers fondness forms great expectations of you which when you read this be your faculties strong or weak you will very probably say you are capable of more than fulfilling The feeble hearing their worth or talents questioned are too apt to swell and assume and I have heard it said that the strong are too intimately acquainted with themselves to harbour doubt I believe it ought to be so I believe it to be better that we should act boldly and bring full conviction upon ourselves when mistaken than that a timid spirit should render us too cautious to do either good or harm I would not preach neither indeed at present could I A thousand ideas seemed crowding upon my mind but they have expelled each other as
quickly as they came and I scarcely know what to add My headachs disqualify me for long or consistent thinking and nothing I believe but habit keeps me from being half an idiot
One thing however I cannot forget which is that I am your mother Clifton and that I have the most ardent and unremitting desire to see you a virtuous and a happy man In which hope my blessing and love are most sincerely yours
M CLIFTON
LOUISA CLIFTON TO HER BROTHER COKE CLIFTON
RoseBank
IT is long my dear brother since I received a letter from you and still longer since I had the pleasure to see you How many rivers seas valleys and mountains have you traversed since that time What various nations what numerous opposite and characteristic countenances
have you beheld From all and each of them I hope you have learned something I hope the succession of objects has not been so quick as to leave vacuity in the mind
My propensity to moralize used formerly And our formerlies you know brother are not of any long duration to tease and half put you out of temper Indulge me once more in hoping it will not do so at present for I believe I am more prone to this habit than ever What can I say to my brother Shall I tattle to him the scandal of the village were I mistress of it Shall I describe to him the fashion of a new cap or the charms of a dress that has lately travelled from Persia to Paris from Paris to London and from London to RoseBank
Or shall I recount the hopes and fears of a sister who has sometimes the temerity to think who would be so unfashionable as to love her brother not for the cut of his coat not for the French or Italian phrases with which he might interlard his discourse not for any recital of the delight which foreign ladies took in him and which he took in foreign ladies not for a loud tongue and a prodigious lack of wit not for any of the antics or impertinences which I have too frequently remarked in young men of fashion but for something directly the reverse of all these for welldigested principles an ardent desire of truth incessant struggles to shake off prejudices for emanations of soul bursts of thought and flashes of genius For such a brother
oh how eager would be my arms how open my heart
Do not think my dear Clifton I am unjust enough to mean any thing personal to satirize what I can scarcely be said to have seen or to condemn unheard No Your faculties were always lively You have seen much must have learned much and why may I not suppose you are become all that a sisters heart can desire Pardon me if I expect too much Do we not all admire and seek after excellence When we are told such a person is a man of genius do we not wish to enquire into the fact And if true are we not desirous of making him our intimate And do not the ties of blood doubly enforce such wishes in a brothers behalf From what you
were I have no doubt but that you are become an accomplished man But I hope you are also become something much better I hope that by the exertion of your talents acquirements and genius I shall see you the friend of man and the true citizen of the world
If you are all that I hope I think you will not be offended with these sisterly effusions If you are not or but in part you may imagine me vain and impertinent But still I should suppose you will forgive me because you are so seldom troubled with such grave epistles and one now and then if not intolerably long may be endured from an elder sister
Yet why do I say elder Neither age nor station have any just claim for
there can be none except the claims of truth and reason against which there is no appeal I am eighteen months older than my brother and up rises the claim of eldership Such are the habits the prejudices we have to counteract
My dear mamma has mentioned Sir Arthur St Ives in her letter and his lovely daughter Anna more lovely in mind even than in form and of the latter a single glance will enable you to judge I need not request you to be attentive and civil to her for it is impossible you should be otherwise Your own gratification will induce you to shew her the public places and render her every service in your power which will be more than overpaid by associating with her for it is indeed a delight to be
in her company For grace and beauty of person she has no equal and still less can she be equalled by any person of her age for the endowments of wit and understanding I am half angry with myself for pretending to recommend her when as you will see she can so much more effectually recommend herself
I have nothing to add except to say that when my dear brother has a moments leisure I shall be glad to hear from him and that I remain his very affectionate sister
L CLIFTON
P S
On recollection I am convinced it is a false fear which has prevented me from mentioning another person very
eminently deserving of esteem and respect a fear of doing harm where I meant to do good We ought to do our duty and risk the consequences The absurd pride of ancestry occasions many of our young gentlemen to treat those whom they deem their inferiors by birth with haughtiness and often with something worse forgetting that by this means they immediately cut themselves off as it were from society for by contemning those who are a supposed step below them they encourage and incur contempt from the next immediately above them This is in some measure the practice and were it true that birth is any merit it would be a practice to which we ought to pay a still more strict attention The young gentleman however
whom I mean to recommend for his great and peculiar worth is Mr Frank Henley the son of a person who is gardener and steward to Sir Arthur or rather what the people among whom you are at present would call his homme daffaires But I must leave my friends to speak for themselves which they will do more efficaciously than can be done by any words of mine
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX AT VENICE
Paris Hotel de lUniversité près le Pont Royal
I WRITE Fairfax according to promise to inform you that I have been a fortnight in France and four days in this city The tract of country over which I have passed within these three months is considerable From Naples
to Rome from Rome to Florence from Florence to Venice where we spent our carnival from Venice to Modena Parma and Genoa from thence to Turin from Turin to Geneva then turning to the left to Lyons and from Lyons to Paris Objects have passed before me in such a rapid succession that the time I have spent abroad though not more than a year and a half appears something like a life The sight of the proud Alps which boldly look eternity in the face imparts a sensation of length of time wholly inadequate to the few hours that are employed in passing them The labour up is a kind of age and the swift descent is like falling from the clouds once more to become an inhabitant of earth
Here at Paris I half fancy myself at home And yet to timid people who have never beheld the ocean and who are informed that seas divide France and England Paris appears to be at an unattainable distance Every thing is relative in this world great or small near or distant only by comparison The traveller who should have passed the deserts and suffered all the perils all the emotions of a journey from Bengal by land would think himself much nearer home at Naples than I do coming from Naples at Paris and those who have sailed round the world seem satisfied that their labour is within a hairs breadth of being at an end when they arrive on their return at the Cape of Good Hope
You Fairfax have frequently asked me to give you accounts of this and that place of the things I have seen and of the observations I have made But I have more frequently put the same kind of questions to myself and never yet could return a satisfactory answer I have seen people whose manners are so different from those of my own country that I have seemed to act with them from a kind of conviction of their being of another species Yet a moments consideration undeceives me I find them to be mere men Men of different habits indeed but actuated by the same passions the same desire of selfgratification Yes Fairfax the sun moon and stars make their appearance in Italy as regularly as in England nay
much more so for there is not a tenth part of the intervening clouds
When molested by their dirt their vermin their beggars their priests and their prejudices how often have I looked at them with contempt The uncleanliness that results from heat and indolence the obsequious slavishness of the common people contrasted with their loquacious impertinence the sensuality of their hosts of monks nay the gluttony even of their begging friars their ignorant adoration of the rags and rotten wood which they themselves dress up the protection afforded to the most atrocious criminals if they can but escape to a mass of stone which they call sacred the little horror in which they hold murder the promptness with which they assassinate
for affronts which they want the spirit to resent their gross buffooneries religious and theatrical the ridiculous tales told to the vulgar by their preachers and the improbable farces which are the delight of the gentle and the simple all these and many other things of a similar nature seem to degrade them below rational creatures
Yet reverse the picture and they appear rather to be demigods than men Listen to their music Behold their paintings Examine their palaces their basins of porphyry urns and vases of Numidian marble catacombs and subterranean cities their sculptured heroes triumphal arches and amphitheatres in which a nation might assemble their Corinthian columns hewn from he rocks
of Egypt and obelisks of granite transported by some strange but forgotten means from Alexandria the simplicity the grandeur and beauty of their temples and churches the vast fruitfulness of their lands their rich vineyards teeming fields and early harvests the mingled sublime and beautiful over the face of nature in this country which is sheltered from invaders by mountains and seas so as by a small degree of art to render it impregnable their desolating earthquakes which yet seem but to renovate fertility their volcanos sending forth volumes of flame and rivers of fire and overwhelming cities which though they have buried they have not utterly destroyed these and a thousand other particulars which I can neither
enumerate nor remember apparently speak them a race the most favoured of heaven and announce Italy to be a country for whose embellishment and renown earth and heaven men and gods have for ages contended
The recollection of these things appears to be more vivid and to give me greater pleasure than I believe the sight of them afforded Perhaps it is my temper Impatient of delay I had scarcely glanced at one object before I was eager to hunt for another The tediousness of the Ciceroni was to me intolerable What cannot instantly be comprehended I can scarcely persuade myself to think worthy of the trouble of enquiry I love to enjoy and if enjoyment do not come to me I must fly
to seek it and hasten from object to object till it be overtaken
Intellectual pleasures delight me when they are quick certain and easily obtained I leave those which I am told arise from patient study length of time and severe application to the fools who think time given to be so wasted Roses grow for me to gather rivers roll for me to lave in Let the slave dig the mine but for me let the diamond sparkle Let the lamb the dove and the lifeloving eel writhe and die it shall not disturb me while I enjoy the viands The five senses are my deities to them I pay worship and adoration and never yet have I been slack in the performance of my duty
What Shall we exist but for a few
years and of those shall there be but a few hours as it were of youth joy and pleasure and shall we let them slip Shall we cast away a good that never can return and seek for pain which is itself in so much haste to seek for us Away with such folly The opposite system be mine
The voluptuous Italian as wise in this as in other arts knows better He lives for the moment and takes care not to let the moment slip His very beggars basking in the sun will not remove so long as hunger will suffer them to enjoy the happiness of being idle Who so perfectly understand the luxury of indolence as the Lazaroni of Naples
The Italian indeed seems to exert all the craft for which he is so famous to
accomplish this sole purpose of enjoyment He marries a wife and the handsomest he can procure that when the ardour of desire is satiated she may fleece some gallant who shall pay for his pleasures elsewhere And as variety is the object of all gallant succeeds to gallant while he himself flies from mistress to mistress and thus an equal barter is maintained
This office of Cicisbeo is however an intolerably expensive one especially to our countrymen The Signora is so inventive in her faculties there are so many trinkets which she dies to possess and her wants real and artificial are so numerous that the purse is never quiet in the pocket And every Englishman
is supposed to be furnished with the purse of Fortunatus
The worst because the most dangerous part of the business is the ugly and the old think themselves entitled to be as amorous as the young and beautiful and a tall fellow with a little fresh blood in his veins is sure to have no peace for them Prithee Fairfax tell me how the Contessa behaved when she found I had escaped from her amorous pursuit She began to make me uneasy and I almost thought it was as necessary for me to have a taster as any tyrant in Christendom Poison and the stiletto disturbed my dreams for there were not only she but two or three more who seemed determined to take no denial
I congratulated myself as I was rolling down mount Cenis to think that I was at length actually safe and that the damned blacklooking hooknosed scowling fellow from Bergamo whom I had so often remarked dogging me was no longer at my heels
But I have now bidden adieu to the Cassini the Carnivali and the Donne and soon shall see what provision this land of France affords For the short time that I have been here I have no occasion to complain of my reception I do not know why Fairfax but we Englishmen seem to be in tolerably good repute every where with the ladies Well well pretty dears they shall find me very much at their service I should be
sorry to bring disgrace upon my nation Fairfax Would not you
I expect to find you a punctual correspondent Fail not to let me know when weary of being a Cavaliere servente you shall leave the proud banks of the Adriatic and the wanton Venice for some other abode that our letters may never miss their aim I will relate every thing that happens to me when it can either afford you amusement to read or me satisfaction to write You have too much honour and honesty not to do the same Or if not I will try what a threat can do therefore remember that unless you fulfil the terms of our agreement and give me an account of all your rogueries adventures successes
and hairbreadth escapes I will choose some other more punctual and more entertaining correspondent
Observe further and let that be a spur to your industry I have a tale in petto a whimsical adventure which happened to me yesterday evening but which I shall forbear to regale you with for three substantial reasons first because it is my good pleasure secondly because I like it and lastly such is my sovereign will Nay if that be all I can give you three more first because I am almost at the end of my paper next because I may want a good subject when I write again and finally because the post is a sturdy unceremonious fellow and does not think proper to wait my leisure
So farewell and believe me to be very sincerely yours
COKE CLIFTON
P S
I have this moment received information that Sir Arthur St Ives and his daughter arrived yesterday in the afternoon at Paris I have heard that the daughter is the most beautiful woman in England and that her wit is even superior to her beauty I am very glad of the accident for I have a great desire to see her My mothers last was partly a letter of business but chiefly of recommendation particularly of the young lady and in it was enclosed one from my sister Louisa which gives a very high character of her friend Anna
St Ives They have become acquainted since I have been abroad The letter is loaded with advice to me at which as you may well think I laugh These girls tied to their mothers apronstrings pretend to advise a man who has seen the world But vanity and conceit are strange propensities that totally blind the eyes of their possessors I have lived but little at home but I always thought the young lady a forward imperious miss yet I never before knew her so much on the stilts I expect she will soon put on boots and buckskin and horsewhip her fellows herself for she improves apace
Once more farewell
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Paris Hotel dEspagne Rue Guenegaude Fauxbourg St Germain
AFTER abundance of jolting in carriages seasickness and such like trifling accidents incidental to us travellers here we are at last dear Louisa My very first demand has been for pen ink and paper to inform my kind friend of
our safe arrival though I am so giddy after this post haste four days hurry that I scarcely can write a straight line Neither do I know whether I have any thing to say though I seemed to myself to have acquired an additional stock of ideas at the very moment that I first beheld Calais and the coast of France
What is there my dear in the human mind that induces us to think every thing which is unusual is little less than absurd Is it prejudice is it vanity or is it a short and imperfect view a want of discrimination I could have laughed but that I had some latent sense of my own folly at the sight of a dozen French men and women and two or three loitering monks whom curiosity had drawn
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together upon the pierhead to see us come into port And what was my incitement to laughter—It was the different cut of a coat It was a silk bag in which the hair was tied an old sword and a dangling pair of ruffles which none of them suited with the poverty of the dress and meagre appearance of a person who seemed to strut and value himself upon such marks of distinction
Sterne was in my pocket and his gentle spirit was present to my mind Perhaps the person who thus excited a transient emotion of risibility was a nobleman For the extremes of riches and of poverty are as I have been informed very frequent among the nobility of France He might happen to think
himself a man highly unfortunate and aggrieved The supposition occasioned my smile to evaporate in a sigh
But the houses—They were differently built—Could that be right They were not so clean That was certainly wrong In what strange land is the standard of propriety erected—Then the blue and brown jackets of the women their undaunted manner of staring their want of hats and stays the slovenly look of slippers not drawn up at the heel the clumsy wooden shoes of some and the bare feet of others nay their readiness to laugh at the uncouth appearance of the people who were condemning them for being ridiculous what could all this be But how came I so unaccountably to forget that
children and beggars sometimes go barefoot in England and that few people perhaps are more addicted to stare and laugh at strangers than ourselves Oh But the French are so polite a nation that even the common people are all well bred and would enter a drawingroom with more ease and grace than an English gentleman—Have you never heard this nonsense Louisa
The character of nations or rather of mind is apparent in trifles Granted Let us turn our eyes back to the shores we have so lately left let us examine the trifles we hang about ourselves How many of them which characterize and as it were stamp the nation with absurdity escape unobserved We see them every day we have adopted and
made them our own and we should be strangely offended should any person take the liberty having discovered the folly of them to laugh at us
I wrote thus far last night but learning on enquiry that Tuesdays and Fridays are foreign post days I left off being rather indisposed after my journey Tis only a swimming in the head which will soon leave me though I find it has returned upon me occasionally all the morning But to my pleasing task again let me prattle to my friend
The innkeepers of Calais come themselves or send their waiters to watch for and invite passengers to their houses and will not be dismissed without difficulty
The most daring endeavour to secure customers by seizing on some of their trunks or baggage But we had determined to go to Desseins and the active Frank soon made way for us
I was amused with the handbill stuck up against the walls of this inn or hotel as it is called announcing it to be the largest the completest the most magnificent with a thousand et caeteras in the universe and recounting not only its numerous accommodations but the multifarious trades which it contained within its own walls to all which was added a playhouse A playhouse it is true there was but no players and as for trades there were at least as many as we wanted Sir Arthur took over his own carriage otherwise this first of inns in
the universe would not have furnished him with one but on condition of its being purchased
Sir Arthur observed it was strange that the French innkeepers should not yet have discovered it to be their interest to keep carriages for travellers as in England To which Frank Henley shrewdly answered that the book of post roads in his hand informed him government was in reality every where the innkeeper and reserved to itself the profits of posting And the deepest thinkers added Frank inform us that every thing in which governments interfere is spoiled I remarked to him that this principle would lead us a great way Yes said he but not too far and playing upon my words added it would lead us back to
the right way from which we appear at present to have strayed into the very labyrinth of folly and blunders
Frank is earnestly studious of the effects of governments and laws and reads the authors who have written best on such subjects with great attention and pleasure He and Sir Arthur by no means agree in politics and Sir Arthur has two or three times been half affronted that a man so young and so inferior to himself as he supposes Frank to be should venture to be of a different opinion and dispute with him who was once in his life too a member of parliament I am obliged now and then slily to remind him of the highwayman and Turnham Green
And now Louisa traveller like could
I regale you with a melancholy narrative relating how the fields in this country have no hedges how the cows are as meagre as their keepers how wretched the huts and their owners appear how French postillions jump in and out of jackboots with their shoes on because they are too heavy to drag after them how they harness their horses with ropes how dexterously they crack the merciless whips with which they belabour the poor hacks they drive how we were obliged to pay for five of these hacks having only four in our carriage and two of them frequently blind lame or useless with many other items that might be grievous to hear could I but persuade myself thoroughly to pity or be angry at the whole French
nation for not exactly resembling the English But do they themselves complain Mercy on us Complain—Nothing is so grateful to their hearts as the praise of that dear country which English travellers are so prone to despise
Frank as usual has been all attention all ardour all anxiety to render our journey as pleasant as possible His efforts have been chiefly directed to me my ease my satisfaction my enjoyment have been his continual care Not that he has neglected or overlooked Sir Arthur He overlooks no living creature to whom he can give aid He loses no opportunity of gaining the esteem and affection of high and low rich and poor His delicacy never slumbers
His thirst of doing good is never assuaged I am young it is true but I never before met a youth so deserving Think of him myself I must not though I would give kingdoms if I had them to see him completely happy
And now dear Louisa I am soon to meet your brother Why do I seem to recollect this with a kind of agitation Is there rebellion in my heart Would it swerve from the severe dictates of duty No I will set too strict a watch over its emotions What Does not Louisa honour me with the title of friend and shall I prove unworthy of her friendship Forbid it emulation truth and virtue
How happy should I be were your brother and Frank Henley to conceive
an immediate partiality for each other How much too would it promote the project I wish to execute I have been taxing my invention to sorm some little plot for this purpose but I find it barren I can do nothing but determine to speak of Frank as he deserves which surely will gain him the love of the whole world And for his part I know how ready he will be to give merit its due
I have more than once purposely mentioned your brothers name to Sir Arthur when Frank was present in some manner to prepare and guard him against surprise But I could not but remark my hints had an effect upon him that betrayed how much his heart was alarmed He thinks too favourably and I fear too frequently of me What can be
done The wisest of us are the slaves of circumstances and of the prejudices of others How many excellent qualities are met in him And for these to be rejected— Alas—We must patiently submit to the awful laws of necessity
Neither is Sir Arthur without his fears and suspicions His discourse betrays his alarms He cannot conceive that a love of the merits of Frank can be distinct from all love of his person The crime of disobedience in children the ruin of families by foolish and unequal marriages and the wretchedness which is the result of such guilty conduct have been hinted at more than once lately and though not with many words yet with a degree of anxiety that gave me
pain for it taught me being suspected half to suspect myself
But I must conclude my travelling vertigo I find is not immediately to be shaken off I imagine that a few hours calm sleep will be my best physician Adieu I shall wait with some impatience for a letter from my dear Louisa
A W ST IVES
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
Paris Hôtel dEspagne Rue Guenegaude Fauxbourg St Germain
MY emotions Oliver are too strong to permit me to narrate common occurrences I can only tell thee our journey is ended that we arrived yesterday and that we are now at Paris My feelings are more tumultuous than they ought to
be and seek relief in the mild and listening patience of friendship
First however I must relate a singular adventure which happened yesterday evening
After I had seen our baggage properly disposed of curiosity led me though night was approaching to walk out and take a view of the famous façade of the Louvre From thence I strayed through the gardens of the Thuilleries to the Place de Louis XV being delighted with the beauties around me but which I have not now time to describe A little farther are the Champs Elysées where trees planted in quincunx afford a tolerably agreeable retreat to the Parisians
It was now twilight The idlers had
retired for I suppose from what followed that it is not very safe to walk after dark in these environs Ignorant of this and not apprehensive of any danger I had strayed to a considerable distance among the trees against one of which I stood leaning and contemplating the banks of the Seine the Palais Bourbon and other surrounding objects All was silent except the distant hum of the city and the rattling of carriages which could but just be heard
Amid this calm I was suddenly alarmed by voices in anger and approaching They spoke in French and presently became more distinct and loud
Draw sir said one
Mort de ma vie come along answered the other
Draw sir I say replied the first I neither know who you are nor what your intentions may be I will go no further Draw
Sacristi answered his antagonist we shall be interrupted the guard will be upon us in a moment
The first however was resolute and in an imperious voice again bade him draw Their swords were instantly out and they began to assault each other Thou mayst imagine Oliver I would not cowardly stand and be a spectator of murder They were not twenty paces from me I flew when to my great surprise one of them called in English Keep off sir Who are you Keep off And his enemy having dropt his guard he presented his point to me
It was no time to hesitate I rushed resolutely between them holding up my open hands above my head to shew the Englishman who seemed apprehensive of a conspiracy he had nothing to fear from me His anger almost overcame him he held up his sword as if to strike with it and with great haughtiness and passion again bade me begone Have patience sir answered I Men shall not assassinate each other if I can prevent it
Let us retire said the Frenchman I knew we should be interrupted
You shall not fight I will follow you added I will call for help
You are a damned impertinent fellow said the Englishman
Be it so but you shall not fight was my answer
The combatants finding me so determined put up their swords and mutually exchanged their address after which they separated So that it is probable Oliver my interference has done no good But that I must leave to chance I could not act otherwise
This incident so immediately after my arrival in a place so strange to me and coming so suddenly made too great an impression upon me not to tell it thee Though I have another topic much nearer my heart the true state of which has been shewn me by an event of which I will now inform thee
We are lodged here in the first floor consisting of many chambers each of which is a thoroughfare to the most distant It is not ten minutes since I was seated and preparing to write to thee when Anna came to pass through the room where I was and retire to her own apartment She was fatigued I imagine by the journey though I frequently fear the ardour of her mind will injure her constitution She walked with some difficulty was evidently giddy and staggered I was alarmed and was rising when she called to me faintly—Help me Frank
I sprung and caught her as she was falling I received her in my arms And my agitation was so violent that it was with difficulty I could preserve
strength enough to support her and seat her in the chair I had quitted
The house to me was a kind of wilderness I knew not where to run yet run I did for water I called Laura with a latent wish that nobody might help her but myself and as it happened nobody heard I returned she recovered thanked me with her usual heavenly kindness and I conducted her to her apartment she leaning on my arm
Oh Oliver is it wrong to feel what I feel at the remembrance If it be reprove me sternly teach me my duty and I will thank thee Surely there is something supernatural hovers over her At least she resembles no other mortal Then her kindness to me her looks her
smiles her actions are all intentional benignancy She is now but three chambers distant from me enjoying as I hope refreshing slumbers Angels guard her and inspire her dreams No matter for the nonsense of my words Oliver thou knowest my meaning She desired me to bid Laura not disturb her and here I sit watchful of my precious charge Grateful heartsoothing office
And now Oliver what am I to think My fears would tie my tongue but either I am deluded or hope brightens upon me and I want the selfdenying resolution of silence Yes Oliver I must repeat there is such sweetness in her countenance when she speaks to me such a smile so inviting so affirmative
that I am incessantly flattering myself it cannot but have a meaning I have several times lately heard her sigh and once so emphatically that I think it impossible I should be deceived I and Sir Arthur were conversing I was endeavouring to shew the pernicious tendency of the prejudices of mankind and inadvertently touched upon the absurdity of supposing there could be any superiority of man over man except that which genius and virtue gave Sir Arthur did not approve the doctrine and was pettish I perhaps was warmed by a latent sense of my own situation and exclaimed—
Oh How many noble hearts are groaning at this instant under the oppression of these prejudices Hearts that groan not because
they suffer but because they are denied the power effectually to aid their very oppressors who exert the despotism of numbers to enforce claims which they themselves feel to be unjust but which they think it dishonourable to relinquish
—It was then the sigh burst forth of which I told thee I turned and found her eyes fixed upon me She blushed and looked down and then again bent them toward me I was heated and daring We exchanged looks and said— Volumes could not repeat how much—But surely neither of us said any thing to the others disadvantage
Oh The bliss to perceive myself understood and not reproved To meet such emanations of mind— Ecstasy is
a poor word Once more she seemed to repeat—She would love me if I would let her
Tell me then—Have I not reason on my side And if I have will she not listen May she not be won Shall I doubt of victory fighting under the banners of truth Alas—Well well—
My own sensations Oliver are so acute and I am so fearful lest they should lead me astray that I could not forbear this detail—Let us change the theme
Well here we are in France and wonderful to tell France is not England
I imagine it is impossible to travel
through a foreign country without falling into certain reveries and that each man will fashion his dreams in part from accident and in part according to the manner in which he has been accustomed to ruminate Thy most excellent father Oliver early turned my mind to the consideration of forms of government and their effects upon the manners and morals of men The subject in his estimation is the most noble that comes under our cognizance and the more I think myself capable of examining and the more I actually do examine the more I am a convert to his opinion How often has it been said of France by various English philosophers and by many of its own sages What a happy country would this be were it well governed
But with equal truth the same may be said of every country under heaven England itself Oliver in spite of our partialities not excepted
How false how futile how absurd is the remark that a despotic government under a perfect monarch would be the state of highest felicity First an impossible thing is asked and next impossible consequences deduced One tyrant generates a nation of tyrants His own mistakes communicate themselves east west north and south and what appeared to be but a spark becomes a conflagration
How inconsistent are the demands and complaints of ignorance It wishes to tyrannize yet exclaims against tyranny It grasps at wealth and pants after
power yet clamours aloud against the powerful and the wealthy It hourly starts out into all the insolence of pride yet hates and endeavours to spurn at the proud
Among the many who have a vague kind of suspicion that things might be better are mingled a few who seem very desirous they should remain as they are These are the rich who having by extortion and rapine plundered the defenceless and heaped up choice of viands and the fat of the land some sufficient to feed ten some twenty some a hundred some a thousand and others whole armies and being themselves each only able to eat for one say to the hungry who have no food—
Come Dance for my sport and I will give you
bread Lick the dust off my shoes and you shall be indulged with a morsel of meat Flatter me and you shall wear my livery Labour for me and I will return you a tenth of your gain Shed your blood in my behalf and while you are young and robust I will allow you just as much as will keep life and soul together when you are old and worn out you may rob hang rot or starve
Would not any one imagine Oliver that this were poetry Alas It is mere literal matter of fact
Yet let us not complain Men begin to reason and to think aloud and these things cannot always endure
I intended to have made some observations on the people the aspect of the
country and other trifles I scarcely now know what but I have wandered into a subject so vast so interesting so sublime that all petty individual remarks sink before it Nor will I for the present blur the majesty of the picture by illplaced mean and discordant objects Therefore farewell
F HENLEY
P S
Examine all I have said and what I am going to add relative to myself with severity Mine is a state of mind in which the jealous rigour of friendship appears to be essentially necessary I have been seized with I know not what apprehensions by some hints which she has two or three times lately repeated concerning the brother of her
dear and worthy friend Louisa who it seems is to give us the meeting at Paris Is it not ominous At least the manner in which she introduced the subject and spoke of him as well as the replies of Sir Arthur were all of evil augury Yet why torment myself with imaginary terrors Should the brother resemble the friend— Well What if he should Would it grieve me to find another man of virtue and genius because it is possible my personal interest might be affected by the discovery No My mind has still strength sufficient to reject nay to contemn so unworthy a thought But he may be something very different Love her he must all who behold her love The few words she has occasionally dropped
have led me to suspect
more was meant than met the ear
Whenever this chord is touched my heart instantly becomes tremulous and with sensibility so painful as fully to lay open its weakness against which I must carefully and resolutely guard It is these incongruous these jarring tokens that engender doubt and suspense almost insupportable
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Paris Hotel dEspagne Rue Guenegaude Fauxbourg St Germain
THE oddest and most unlucky accident imaginable Louisa has happened Your brother and Frank have unfortunately half quarrelled without knowing each other I mentioned a giddiness with which I was seized the consequence
as I suppose of travelling I was obliged to retire to my chamber nay should have fallen as I went but for Frank I desired he would tell Laura not to disturb me and he it seems planted himself sentinel with a determination that neither Laura nor any other person should approach I am too often in his thoughts he is wrong to bestow so much of his time and attention on me Sir Arthur was gone to look about him having first sent a note unknown to me to inform your brother of our arrival and requesting to see him as soon as convenient
Away hurried your brother at this mal apropos interval with Sir Arthurs note in his pocket to our hotel He enquired for my father
He was gone out
For me
Laura answered she would call me
She was running with great haste for this purpose but was intercepted by Frank who agreeably to my desire would not suffer her to proceed She returned and your brother referring again to Sir Arthurs note was much surprised and rather vexed
He asked by whose order she was sent back
She answered by the order of Mr Frank
Who was Mr Frank
A young gentleman Laura has repeated all that passed the son of Mr Aby Henley
And who was Mr Aby Henley
The steward and gardener of Sir Arthur his head man
Steward and gardener The son of a gardener a gentleman
Yes sir To be sure sir among thorough bred quality though perhaps he may be better than the best of them he is thought no better than a kind of a sort of a gentleman being not so high born
Well said your brother shew me to this son of Mr Aby this peremptory gentleman or as you call him kind of a sort of a gentleman
Laura obeyed and she says they were quite surprised at the sight of each other but that I suppose to be one of the flourishes of her fancy Your brother however as I understand desired
with some haughtiness that Frank would suffer the maid to pass and inform me he was come agreeably to Sir Arthurs request to pay his respects to me Frank resolutely refused alleging I was not well Not well Said your brother Is not this Sir Arthurs handwriting Yes replied Frank but I assure you she is not well and I am afraid that even our speaking may awaken her if she should chance to be asleep I must therefore request sir you would retire
The oddness of the circumstances and the positiveness of Frank displeased your brother Sir Arthur happened to return and he went to him scarcely taking time for first compliments but asking whether it were true that I was not well Sir Arthur was surprised he
knew nothing of it I had not thought a giddiness in the head worth a complaint Laura was again sent to tell me and was again denied admittance Sir Arthur then with your brother came to question Frank who continued firm in his refusal and when Sir Arthur and your brother had heard that I was so dizzy as to be in danger of falling had not he supported me they were satisfied But such a meeting between Frank and your brother was quite vexatious when the very reverse too was wished However he is to visit us this morning and I will then endeavour to do justice to the worth of Frank and remove false impressions which I have some reason to fear have been made
I will pause here but if I find an opportunity will write another short letter under the same cover by this post that is should I happen to have any thing more to say—This accident was exceedingly unlucky and I seem as if I felt myself to blame especially as I am quite in spirits this morning and relieved from my giddy sensations I am sorry very sorry but it cannot be helped
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
Paris Hotel de lUniversité près le Pont Royal
IT was well I did not tell my tale in my last Fairfax it would have been spoiled I knew it only by halves It has ended in the most singular combination of circumstances one could well imagine
You remember I told you of the arrival
of Sir Arthur St Ives and his daughter I believe it was in the postscript and that I was immediately going to—Pshaw I am beginning my story now at the wrong end It is throughout exceedingly whimsical Listen and let amazement prop your open mouth
You must have observed the ease with which Frenchmen though perfect strangers to each other fall into familiar conversation and become as intimate in a quarter of an hour as if they had been acquainted their whole lives This is a custom which I very much approve But like all other good things it is liable to abuse
The other day I happened to be taking a walk on the Boulevards it being a church festival purposely to see the
good Parisians in all their gaiety and glory and a more cheerful at least a more noisy people do not I believe exist As I was standing to admire a waxwork exhibition of all the famous highwaymen and cutthroats whose histories are most renowned in France and listening to the fellow at the door bawling—Aux Voleurs Aux grands Voleurs—Not a little amused with the murderous looks darkness dungeons chains and petty horror which they had micmicked a man uncommonly welldressed with an elegant person and pleasing manners came up and immediately fell into discourse with me I encouraged him because he pleased me We walked together and had not conversed five minutes before without seeming to
seek an opportunity he had informed me that he was the Marquis de Passy and that he had left his carriage and attendants because he like me took much pleasure in observing the hilarity of the holiday citizens He had accosted me he said because he had a peculiar esteem for the English of which nation he knew me to be by my step and behaviour
We talked some time and though he made no deep remarks he was very communicative of anecdotes which had come within his own knowledge that painted the manners of the nation Among other things he told me it was not uncommon for valets to dress themselves in their masters clothes when they supposed them to be at a distance
or otherwise engaged assume their titles and pass themselves upon the Bourgeoisie and foreigners for counts dukes or princes It was but this day fortnight said he that the Marechal de R—surprised one of his servants in a similar disguise and with some jocularity publicly ordered the fellow to walk at his heels then went to his carriage and commanded him full dressed as he was to get up behind
He had scarcely ended this account before another person came up and with an air of some authority asked him where his master was what he did there and other questions
To all this my quidam acquaintance with a degree of surprise that seemed to be tempered with the most pleasing and
unaffected urbanity replied without being in the least disconcerted sir you mistake me but I am sure you are too much of a gentleman to mean any wilful affront
Affront Why whom do you pretend yourself to be sir
Sir I am the Marquis de Passy
You the Marquis de Passy—
Yes sir I—
Insolent scoundrel—
No gentleman sir can suffer such language and I insist upon satisfaction—And accordingly my champion drew his sword His antagonist looking on him with ineffable contempt answered he would take some proper opportunity to cane him as he deserved
I own I was amazed I reasoned a
short time with myself and concluded the person was mistaken for that it was impossible for any man to counterfeit so much ease or behave with so much propriety who was not a gentleman I therefore thought proper to interfere and told the intruder that having given an insult he ought not to be afraid of giving satisfaction—
And pray sir said he who are you
A gentleman sir answered I—
Yes As good a one as your companion I suppose—
You know Fairfax it is not customary with me to suffer insolence to triumph unchastised and I ordered him immediately to draw
What sir in this place said he
Follow me if you have any valour to spare
His spirit pleased me and I followed I know not what became of the fellow whose cause I had espoused for I saw him no more
My antagonist led me across the rue St Honoré to a place which I suppose you know called the Elysian Fields It began to be late and I am told there is danger in passing the precincts of the guard I apprehended a conspiracy and at last refused to proceed any farther Finding me obstinate he drew but said we should be interrupted
He was no false prophet for we had not made half a dozen passes before a youth whom from his boots and appearance
I supposed to be English came running and vociferating—Forbear I was not quite certain that his appearance might not be artifice I therefore accosted him in English in which language he very readily replied He was quite a sturdy dauntless gentleman for though our swords were drawn and both of us sufficiently angry he resolutely placed himself between us declaring we should not fight and that if we went farther he would follow
Nothing was to be done and I now began to suspect the person with whom I had this ridiculous quarrel to be really a gentleman I gave him my address and he readily returned his after which we parted he singing a French song and I cursing the insolence of the English
youth who seemed to disregard my anger and to be happy that he had prevented the spilling of blood
Remember that all this happened on the preceding evening after I had written the greatest part of my last long letter The next morning I finished it and received a note from Sir Arthur St Ives as I mentioned
As soon as I could get dressed I hastened away and arriving at the hotel enquired for the knight
He was gone out
For his daughter—
She had retired to her apartment
I sent in my name The maid went and returned with an answer that Mr Frank did not think it proper for her mistress to be disturbed Now Fairfax
guess who Mr Frank was if you can By heaven it was the very individual youth who the night before had been so absolute in putting an end to our duel
I was planetstruck Nor was his surprise less when he saw me and heard my errand and my name
I found my gentleman as positive in the morning as in the evening He was the dragon touch the fruit who dared Jason himself could not have entrance there And he was no less cool than determined I was almost tempted to toss him out of the window
However I am glad I contained myself for on the entrance of Sir Arthur we came to an explanation and I find
the young lady was really indisposed But considering his mongrel birth and breeding for he is the son of a gardener I really never saw a fellow give himself such high airs
Sir Arthur received me with great civility I have not yet seen the daughter but I expect to find her a beauty She is the toast of the county where her father resides I am to be with her in half an hour and as I suppose I shall be fully engaged with this and other affairs for some days I shall seal up my letter you must therefore wait for an account of her till inclination and the full tide of events shall induce me again to indite of great matters
I shall direct this agreeably to your
last to your bankers in Parma Do not fail to tell me when you shall be at Turin
Yours very sincerely C CLIFTON
P S
My opponent of the Elysian Fields has just paid me a visit He is a man of family seems to be of a flighty pleasant humour and acknowledged that what he had heard convinced him he had mistaken my character for which he was very ready either to cut my throat or ask my pardon His ease and good temper spoke much in his favour and I laughed and answered in mercy to my throat I would accept his apology In consideration of which we are to cultivate an acquaintance and be sworn friends
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Paris Hotel dEspagne Rue Guenegaude Fauxbourg St Germain
I RETURN eagerly to my Louisa Mr Clifton my dear has this instant left us I give you joy Yes he is the brother of my friend I do not say he is her equal though I am not quite sure that he is her inferior He is all animation
all life His person is graceful his manners pleasing and his mind vigorous I can say but little from so short an acquaintance except that I am convinced his virtues or his errors if he have any And who is without are not of the feeble kind They are not characterised by dull mediocrity which of all qualities is the most hopeless and incapable He gave his earnest desire to see me when he was refused by Frank the air of a handsome compliment politely accusing himself of improper impatience when he was in expectation of what he was pleased to call an uncommon pleasure Though it was our first interview he felt no restraint but said many very civil things naturally
and with an exceedingly good grace
I purposely turned the conversation on Frank related some anecdotes of him and bestowed praise which was confirmed by Sir Arthur Your brother whose imagination is warm and active called him a trusty Cerberus and said he had a mouth to answer each of the three meaning Laura himself and Sir Arthur Various remarks which escaped him shew that he has a fondness for pleasant satire and similes of humour
He praised Frank after hearing our account of him but his praise was qualified with the word obstinacy There was an appearance of feeling that the gentleman ought not to have been so
sternly repulsed by the son of a steward—And was this his kindred equality to my friend—Forgive me Louisa—It was unjust in me to say I was not quite sure he is your inferior—However I can very seriously assure you he is not one of your every day folks
Frank came in and your brother addressed him with good humour but in a tone denoting it was the gentleman to the sort of a gentleman I own it pleased me to observe the ease with which Frank by his answers obliged Mr Clifton to change his key But I soon had occasion to observe that the warmth of your brothers expressions his eagerness to be immediately intimate with us and the advances which he with so little sense of embarrassment made to me had an effect
upon Frank which I greatly fear was painful I must look to this it is a serious moment and I must seriously examine and quickly resolve In the mean time your brother has kindly insisted upon devoting himself wholly to our amusements to attend on us and shew us the public buildings gardens paintings and theatres as well as to introduce us to all his friends
And what must we do in return for this wellmeant kindness Must we not endeavour to weed out those few errors for few I hope they are which impoverish a mind in itself apparently fertile and of high rank—Yes it instantly suggested itself to me as an indispensable act of duty—The attempt must be made—With what obstinate warfare do
men encounter peril when money base money is their proposed reward And shall we do less for mind eternal omnipotent mind
He is returned Adieu You shall soon hear again from your
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO HIS SISTER LOUISA CLIFTON
Paris Hotel de lUniversité près le Pont Royal
I WRITE agreeably to your desire sister to thank you for all obligations not forgetting your advice Not but I am excessively obliged to you I am upon my soul and seriously for having done me the favour to bring me acquainted with your charming friend
I have seen many women and in many countries but I never beheld one so sweet so beautiful so captivating I had heard of her before I left England her fame had reached Italy and your letters had raised my expectations But what were these The accomplishments and graces of her person the variety the pleasure inspiring heaven of her countenance the cupids that wanton in her dimples and the delights that swim and glisten in her eyes are each and all exquisite beyond imagination
Whatever you may think of me Louisa I do persuade myself I know something of women I have studied them at home and abroad and have often probed them to the soul But I never before met with any one in the
least comparable to the divine Anna She is so unreserved so open that her soul seems to dwell upon her lips Yet her thoughts are so rapid and her mind so capacious that I am persuaded it will cost me much longer time to know her well than any other woman with whom I ever met
Having thanked you very heartily and sincerely for this favour I shall just say a word or two in answer to yours
And so you really think you have some morality on hand a little stale or so but still sound which you can bestow with advantage upon me You imagine you can tell me something I never heard before Now have you sincerely so much vanity Louisa Be frank You acknowledge I have crossed rivers
seas and mountains but you are afraid I have shut my eyes all the time A loud tongue and a prodigious lack of wit Antics and impertinences of young men of fashion Really my dear you are choice in your phrases You could not love your brother for any recital of the delight which foreign ladies took in him and which he took in foreign ladies But you could be in ecstatics for a brother of your own invention
Do not suppose I am angry No no my dear girl I am got far above all that Though I cannot but laugh at this extraordinary brother which you are fashioning for yourself If when I come into your sublime presence I should by good luck happen to strike your fancy why so My fortune will
then be made If not sister we must do as well as we can All in good time and a Gods name Is not that tolerable Worcestershire morality
I am obliged to lay down my pen with laughing at the idea of Miss Louisas brother supposing him to be exactly of her modelling I think I see him appear before her she seated in state on a chair raised on four tressels and two old doors like a strolling actress mimicking a queen in a barn He dressed in black his hair smugly curled his face and his shoes shining his white handkerchief in his right hand a prayer book or the morals of Epictetus in his left not interlarding his discourse with French or Italian phrases but ready with a good rumbling mouthful of old Greek
which he had composed I mean compiled for the purpose Then having advanced one leg wiped his mouth put his left hand in his breeches pocket clenched his right and raised his arm he begins his learned dissertation on well digested principles ardent desire of truth incessant struggles to shake off prejudices and forth are chanted in nasal twang and tragic recitative his emanations of soul bursts of thought and flashes of genius
But you would not be satirical Gentle modest maiden And surely it becomes the tutored brother to imitate this kind forbearance My faculties were always lively And I must pardon you if you expect too much—Upon my soul this is highly comic Expect too much
And there is danger then that I should not equal your expectations—Prithee my good girl jingle the keys of your harpsichord and be quiet Pore over your fine folio receipt book and appease your thirst after knowledge Satisfy your longing desire to do good by making jellies conserves and caraway cakes Pot pippins brew rasberry wine and candy orange chips Study burns bruises and balsams Distil surfeit colic and wormwood water Concoct hiera picra rhubarb beer and oil of charity and sympathize over sprains whitloes and broken shins Get a charm to cure the ague and render yourself renowned Spin sew and knit Collect your lamentable rabble around you dole out your charities listen to a
full chorus of blessings and take your seat among the saints
You see child I can give advice as well as yourself aye and I will bestow it most plentifully if you happen to feel any desire after more I hate to be ungrateful you shall have no opportunity to utter your musty maxim upon me—That the sin of ingratitude is worse than the sin of witchcraft You shall have weight for weight measure for measure chicken aye my market woman and a lumping pennyworth Brotherly for sisterly effusions
As for the right of eldership I recollect that a dozen years ago I envied you the prerogative but now you are welcome to it with all my heart If among your miraculous acquirements you have
any secret to make time stand still by which you can teach me to remain at sweet fiveandtwenty and if you will disclose it to me I will not only pardon all your impertinences as you so pertinently call them but do any other thing in reason to satisfy you except turn philosopher and feed upon carrots Nay I will allow you to grow as old as you please you shall have full enjoyment of the rights of eldership
In the mean time sister I once more thank you for bringing me acquainted with your friend You seem to have put powder in her drink and I freely tell you I wish she loved me half as well as she professes to love her immaculate Louisa But these I suppose are the flashes of genius which you have taught
her However she is an angel and in her every thing is graceful
As for your other prodigy I scarcely know what to make of him except that he seems to have quite conceit enough of himself Every other sentence is a contradiction of what the last speaker advanced This is the first time he ever ventured to cross his fathers threshold and yet he talks as familiarly of kingdoms governments nations manners and other high sounding phrases as if he had been secretary of state to king Minos had ridden upon the white elephant and studied under the Dalai Lama He is the Great Mogul of politicians And as for letters science and talents he holds them all by patent right He is such a monopolizer that
no man else can get a morsel If he were not a plebeian I could most sincerely wish you were married to him for then whenever my soul should hunger and thirst after morality I should know where to come and get a full meal Though perhaps his not being a gentleman would be no objection to you atleast your letter leads me to suspect as much
Do not however mistake me I mean this jocularly For I will not degrade my sister so much as to suppose she has ever cast a thought on the son either of the gardener or the steward of any man Though tied to her mothers apronstring and shut up on the confines of Worcestershire she may think proper to lecture and give rules of conduct to a
brother who has seen the world and studied both men and books of every kind that is but a harmless and pardonable piece of vanity It ought to be laughed at and for that reason I have laughed
For the rest I will be willing to think as well of my sister as this sister can be to think of her catechised and very patient humble younger brother
C CLIFTON
P S
I have written in answer to my mother by the same post From the general tenor of her letter I cannot but imagine that just before she sat down to write she had been listening to one
of your civil lectures against wild brothers fine gentlemen and vile rakes Is not that the cant One thing let me whisper to you sister I am not obliged to any person who suspects or renders me suspected I claim the privilege of being seen before I am condemned and heard before I am executed If I should not prove to be quite the phoenix which might vie with so miraculous so unique a sister I must then be contented to take shame to myself But till then I should suppose the thoughts of a sister might as well be inclined to paint me white as black After all I cannot conclude without repeating that I believe the whole world cannot equal the lovely the divine Anna St Ives and whatever
else you may say or think of me do not lead her to imagine I am unjust to her supreme beauty and charms An insinuation of that kind I would never forgive—Never
SIR ARTHUR ST IVES TO ABIMELECH HENLEY
Paris Hotel dEspagne Rue Guenegaude Fauxbourg St Germain
YOU cannot imagine honest Aby the surprise I am in Is this their famous France Is this the finest country in the whole world Why Aby from Boulogne to Paris at least from Montreuil I am certain I did not see a
single hedge All one dead flat with an eternal row of trees without beginning middle or end I sincerely believe Aby I shall never love a straight row of trees again And the wearisome right lined road that you never lose sight of not for a moment Aby No lucky turning No intervening hill
Oh that I were but the Grand Monarch What improvements would I make What a scope for invention Aby A kingdom A revenue of four hundred millions of livres and a standing army of three hundred thousand men All which if the king were a wise man it is very evident Abimelech he might employ in improvements and heaven knows there is a want of them What are their petty corvées
by which these straight roads have been patched up and their everlasting elms planted I would assemble all my vassals—Your son Frank Aby has given me much information concerning the present governments of Europe and the origin of manors fiefs and lordships I can assure you he is a very deep young man though I could wish he were not quite so peremptory and positive and has informed me of some things which I never heard of before though I am twice his age But he seems to have them so fast at his fingers ends that I suppose they must be true I had often heard of entails and mortmain and lands held in fee or fief I dont know which and all that you know Abimelech Ones deeds and ones lawyers tell
one something blindly of these matters but I never knew how it had all happened He told me that—Fgad I forget what he told me But I know he made it all out very clear Still I must say he is cursed positive—However Aby as I was saying I would assemble all my vassals all my great lords and fief holders and they should assemble their vassals and all hands should be set to work some to plan others to plant some to grub some to dig some to hoe and some to sow The whole country should soon be a garden Tell me Aby is not the project a grand one What a dispatch of work
What a change of nature I am ravished with the thought
As for any ideas of improvement to be picked up here Abimelech they must not be expected I shall never forget the sameness of the scene So unlike the riches of WenbourneHill Sir Alexander would have a country open enough here at least He would not complain of being shut in The wind may blow from what point it pleases and you have it on all sides Except the roadside elms I mentioned and now and then a coppice which places they tell me are planted for the preservation of the game I should have supposed there had not been a tree in the country had I not been told that there were many large
forests to the right and the left out of sight For my part I dont know where they have hidden them and so must take their word for the fact Tis true indeed that we travelled a part of the way in the dark
I was mentioning the game Aby The game laws here are excellently put in execution Hares are as plenty as rabbits in a warren partridges as tame as our dovehouse pigeons and pheasants that seem as if they would come and feed out of your hand For no scoundrel poacher dare molest them If he did I am not certain whether the lord of the manor could not hang him up instantly without judge or jury
Though Frank tells me they have no juries here which by the bye is odd
enough and as he says I suppose it is a great shame For as he put the case to me how should I like to have my estate seized on by some insolent prince or duke For you know I being a baronet in my own right Aby no one less in rank would dare infringe upon me Well How should I like to have this duke or this prince seize upon my estate and instead of having my right tried by a special jury of my peers to have the cause decided by him who can get the prettiest woman to plead for him and who will pay her and his judges the best For such Frank assures me is the mode here Now really all this is very bad very bad indeed and as he says wants reforming
But as for the game laws as I was
saying Aby they are excellently enforced and your poor rascals here are kept in very proper subjection They are held to the grindstone as I may say And so they ought to be Aby For I have often heard you say what is a man but what he is worth Which in certain respects is very true A gentleman of family and fortune why he is a gentleman and no insolent beggar ought to dare to look him in the face without his permission But you Aby had always a very great sense of propriety in these respects And you have found your advantage in it as indeed you ought It is a pity considering what a learned young man you have made your son that you did not teach him a little of your good sense in this particular
He is too full of contradiction too confident by half
Let me have a long and full and whole account of what you are doing Aby Tell me precisely how forward your work is and the exact spot where you are when each letter comes away I know I need not caution you to keep those idle fellows the day labourers to it I never knew any man who worked them better And yet Aby it is surprising the sums that they have cost me but you are a very careful honest fellow and they have done wonders under my planning and your inspection
I do not wish that the moment I receive a letter it should be known to every lacquey especially here where
it seems to be one entire city of babblers The people appear to have nothing to do but to talk In the house in the street in the fields breakfast dinner and supper walking sitting or standing they are never silent Nay egad I doubt whether they do not talk in their sleep So do you direct to me at the Café Conti—However I had better write the direction for you at full length for fear of a mistake And be sure you take care of your spelling Aby or I dont know what may happen For I am told that many of these French people are devilish illiterate and I am sure they are devilish cunning Snap They answer before they hear you And what is odd enough their answers are sometimes as pat as if they knew
your meaning Indeed I have often thought it strange that your low poor people should be so acute and have so much common sense But do you direct your letters thus—
A Monsieur Monsieur le Chevalier de St Ives Baronet Anglois au Café Conti visàvis le Pont Neuf Quai Conti à Paris
And so Abimelech I remain
A ST IVES
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
Paris Hotel dEspagne rue Guenegaude Fauxbourg St Germain
THE black forebodings of my mind Oliver are fulfilled I have been struck The phantom I dreaded has appeared has flashed upon me and all the evils of which I prophesied and more than all are collecting to overwhelm me are rushing to my ruin
This brother of Louisa Nothing surely was ever so unaccountable The very same whom I prevented from fighting in the Champs Elysees Ay he This identical Clifton for Clifton it was has again appeared has been here is here is never hence His aspect was petrifying He came upon me this second time in the strangest the most insolent manner imaginable just as I had sent away my last letter to thee when I was sitting the guardian of a treasure which my fond false reveries were at that moment flattering me might one day be mine Starting at the sight of me Nothing kind nothing conciliating in his address it was all imperious demand Who was I By what right did I deny admission to the
young ladys woman to inform her he was come to pay her his respects He—Having a letter from Sir Arthur inviting him thither—Were such orders to be countermanded by me Again and again who was I—Oliver he is a haughty youth violent headstrong and arrogant Believe me he will be found so
What do I mean Why do I dread him How The slave of fear Why is my heart so inclined to think ill of him Do I seek to depreciate She has mentioned him several times has expected with a kind of eagerness he would resemble her Louisa has hoped he and I should be friends
Did not I hope the same
Oliver she has
tortured me All benevolence as she is she has put me on the rack
I must not yield thus to passion it is criminal I have too much indulged the flattering dreams of desire Yet what to do—How to act—Must I tamely quit the field the moment an adversary appears turn recreant to myself and cowardlike give up my claims without daring to say such and such they are No Justice is due as much to myself as to any other If he be truly deserving of preference why let him be preferred I will rejoice—Yes Oliver will—He who is the slave of passion is unworthy a place in the noble mind of Anna
But this man is not my superior I
feel Oliver he is not and it becomes me to assert my rights Nay his pride acts as a provocative—Oliver I perceive how wrong this is but I will not blot out the line Let it remain as a memento He that would correct his failings must be willing to detect them
The anxiety of my mind is excessive and the pain which a conviction of the weakness and error that this anxiety occasions renders it still more insupportable I must take myself to task ay and severely I must enquire into the wrong and the right and reason must be absolute Tell me thy thoughts plainly and honestly be sure thou dost for I sometimes suspect thee of too much kindness of partiality to thy friend Chastise the derelictions of my heart
whenever thou perceivest them or I myself shall hereafter become thy accuser I am dissatisfied Oliver what surer token can there be that I am wrong I weary thee—Prithee forgive but do not forget to aid me
F HENLEY
P S
He—I mean Louisas brother for I think only of one he and one she at present He has not yet taken any notice of our strange first meeting and thou mayst imagine Oliver if he think fit to be silent I shall not speak Not that it can be supposed he holds duelling to be disgraceful I have enquired if any rencounter had taken place for I was very apprehensive that the champions would have their tiltingmatch
another time However as I can hear of no such accident and as Mr Clifton is here continually I hope I have been instrumental in preventing such absurd guilt The follies of men are scarcely comprehensible And what am I Dare I think myself wise Oliver my passions are in arms the contest is violent I call on thee to examine and to aid the cause of truth
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
Paris Hotel de lUniversité
I HAVE found it Fairfax The pearl of pearls The inestimable jewel The unique The world contains but one—And what—A woman The woman of whom I told you—Anna St Ives—You have seen the Venus de Medicis—Pshaw—Stone Inanimate
marble But she—The very sight of her is the height of luxury The pure blood is seen to circulate Transparent is the complexion which it illuminates—And for symmetry for motion for grace sculptor painter nor poet ever yet imagined such Desire languishes to behold her The passions all are in arms and the mere enjoyment of her presence is superior to all that her sex beside can give
Do not suppose me in my altitudes all I can say all you can imagine are far short of the reality
Then how unlike is her candour to the petty arts the shallow cunning of her sex Her heart is as open as her countenance her thoughts flow fearless to her lips Original ideas expressed
in words so select phrases so happy as to astonish and delight a brilliancy and a strength of fancy that disdain limitation and wit rapid and fatal as lightning to all opposition these and a thousand other undescribable excellencies are hers
I love her—Love—I adore her Ay—Be not surprised—Even to madness and marriage—No matter for what I have beforetime said or what I have thought my mind is changed I have discovered perfection which I did not imagine could exist I renounce my former opinions which applied to the sex in general were orthodox but to her were blasphemy
I would not be too sudden I have not yet made any direct proposal But
could I exist and forbear giving intimations No And how were they received Why with all that unaffected frankness which did not pretend to misunderstand but to meet them to cherish hope and to give a prospect of bliss which mortal man can never merit
She is all benevolence Nay she is too much so There is that youngster here that upstart he who bolted upon us and mouthed his Pindarics in the Elysian Fields the surly groom of the chamber This fellow has insinuated himself into her favour and the benignity of her soul induces her to treat him with as much respect as if he were a gentleman
The youth has some parts some ideas at least he has plenty of words But his
arrogance is insufferable He does not seruple to interfere in the discourse either with me Sir Arthur or the angelic Anna Nay sets up for a reformer and pretends to an insolent superiority of understanding and wisdom Yet he was never so long from home before in his life has seen nothing but has read a few books and has been permitted to converse with this all intelligent deity
I cannot deny but that the pedagogue sometimes surprises me with the novelty of his opinions but they are extravagant I have condescended oftener than became me to shew how full of hyperbole and paradox they were Still he as constantly maintained them with a kind of congruity that astonished me and even rendered many of them plausible
But exclusive of his obstinacy the rude pot companion loquacity of the fellow is highly offensive He has no sense of inferiority He stands as erect and speaks with as little embarrassment and as loudly as the best of us nay boldly asserts that neither riches rank nor birth have any claim I have offered to buy him a beard if he would but turn heathen philosopher I have several times indeed bestowed no small portion of ridicule upon him but in vain His retorts are always ready and his intrepidity in this kind of impertinence is unexampled
From some anecdotes which are told of him I find he does not want personal courage but he has no claim to chastisement from a gentleman Petty insults
he disregards and has several times put me almost beyond the power of forbearance by his cool and cutting replies His oratory is always ready cut dry and fit for use and damned insolent oratory it frequently is
The absurdity of his tenets can only be equalled by the effrontery with which they are maintained Among the most ridiculous of what he calls first principles is that of the equality of mankind He is one of your levellers Marry His superior Who is he On what proud eminence can he be found On some Welsh mountain or the pike of Teneriffe Certainly not in any of the nether regions What Was not he the ass that brayed to Balaam And is he not now Mufti to the mules He
will if he please And if he please he will let it alone Dispute his prerogative who dare He derives from Adam what time the world was all hail fellow well met The savage the wild man othe woods is his true liberty boy and the orang outang his first cousin A Lord is a merry andrew a Duke a jack pudding and a King a tom fool his name is man
Then as to property tis a tragic farce tis his sovereign pleasure to eat nectarines grow them who will Another Alexander he the world is all his own Ay and he will govern it as he best knows how He will legislate dictate dogmatize for who so infallible What Cannot Goliah crack a walnut
As for arguments it is but ask and
have a peck at a bidding and a good double handful over I own I thought I knew something but no I must to my horn book Then for a simile it is sacrilege and must be kicked out of the high court of logic Sarcasm too is an ignoramus and cannot solve a problem Wit a pert puppy who can only flash and bounce The heavy walls of wisdom are not to be battered down by such popguns and pellets He will waste you wind enough to set up twenty millers in proving an apple is not an egg shell and that homo is Greek for a goose Dun Scotus was a school boy to him I confess he has more than once dumbfounded me by his subtleties—Pshaw—It is a mortal murder of words and time to bestow them on him
My sister is in correspondence with my new divinity I thought proper to bestow a few gentle lashes on her for a letter which she wrote to me and which I mentioned in my first from Paris insinuating her own superiority and giving me to understand how fortunate it would be for the world should I but prove as consummate a paragon as herself She richly deserved it and yet I now wish I had forborne for if she have her sexs love of vengeance in her she may injure me in the tenderest part Never was woman so devoted to woman as Anna St Ives is to Louisa I should suspect any other of her sex of extravagant affectation but her it is impossible to suspect her manner is so peculiarly her own and it comes with such unsought
for energy that there is no resisting conviction
I have two or three times been inclined to write and ask Louisas pardon But no that pride forbids She dare not openly profess herself my enemy She may insinuate and countermine but I have a tolerably strong dependance on my own power over Anna She is not blind She is the first to feel and to acknowledge superior merit and I think I have no reason to fear repulse from any woman whose hand I can bring myself to ask
One of Annas greatest perfections with me is the ready esteem which she entertained for me and her not being insensible to those qualities which I flatter
myself I possess Never yet did woman treat me with affected disdain who did not at last repent of her coquetry
Tis true that Anna has sometimes piqued me by appearing to value me more for my sisters sake even than for my own I have been ready to say dissimulation was inseparable from woman And yet her manner is as unlike hypocrisy as possible I never yet could brook scorn or neglect I know no sensation more delicious than that of inflicting punishment for insult or for injury tis in our nature
That youngster of whom I have prated so much his name is Frank Henley denies this and says that what the world calls nature is habit He added with some degree of sarcasm as
I thought that it was as natural or in his sense as habitual for some men to pardon and to seek the good even of those by whom they were wronged as it was for others to resent and endeavour to revenge But as I have said he continually makes pretensions to an offensive superiority You may think I do not fail to humble the youth whenever opportunity offers But no Humble him indeed Shew him boiling ice Stew a whale in an oystershell Make mount Caucasus into a bag pudding But do not imagine he may be moved The legitimate son of Catos eldest bastard he A petrified Possidonius in high preservation
There is another thing which astonishes me more than all I have mentioned
Curse me Fairfax if I do not believe that God confound the fellow he has the impudence to be in love with Anna St Ives Nay that he braves me defies me and in the insufferable frothy fermentation of his vanity persuades himself that he looks down upon me
I must finish for I cannot think of his intolerable insolence with common patience and I know not what right I have to tease you concerning my paltry disputes with a plebeian pedant and my still more paltry jealousies But let him beware If he really have the arrogance to place himself in my way I will presently trample him into his original nonentity I only forbear because he has had the cunning to make himself so great a favourite
This must be horribly stupid stuff to you Fairfax therefore pay me in my own coin be as dull as you sometimes know how and bid me complain if I dare
C CLIFTON
LOUISA CLIFTON TO COKE CLIFTON
RoseBank
I WRITE dear brother in answer to your last that I may not by any neglect of mine contribute to the mistake in which you are at present Your letter shews that you suppose your sister to be vain presumptuous and rude and such being your feelings I am far
from blaming you for having expressed them
Still brother I must be sincere and I would by no means have it understood that I think you have chosen the best manner of expressing them for it is not the manner which if I have such faults would be most likely to produce reformation But your intention has been to humble me and desiring to be sarcastic you have not failed in producing your intended effect I am sincerely glad of it had you shewn that desire without the power I should have been as sincerely sorry But where there is mind there is the material from which every thing is to be hoped
I suppose I shall again incur chastisement for rising thus as you call it to the
sublime But I will write my thoughts without fear and I hope will patiently listen should they deserve reproach If I have sinned it is in most fervently wishing to find my brother one of the brightest and the best of men and I have received more pleasure from the powers he has displayed in reproving me than I could have done by any dull expression of kindness in which though there might have been words there would neither have been feeling sentiment nor soul
The concluding sentence of your letter warns me not to defame you with my friend I must speak without disguise brother You feel that had you received such a letter revenge would have been the first emotion of your
mind I hope its duration would have been short I will most readily and warmly repeat all the good of my brother that I know but I will neither conceal what ought to be said nor say what I do not know I take it for granted that he would not have me guilty of duplicity
Adieu dear brother and believe me to be most affectionately your
L CLIFTON
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
Paris Hotel dEspagne Rue Guenegaude Fauxbourg St Germain
HOW severe Oliver are the lessons of truth But to learn them from her lips and to be excited to the practice of them by her example are blessings which to enjoy and not to profit by would shew a degenerate heart
I have just risen from a conversation which has made a deep impression on my mind It was during breakfast I know not whether reflecting on it will appease or increase the sensations which the behaviour of this brother of Louisa hourly exacerbates But I will calm that irritability which would dwell on him and nothing else that I may repeat what has just happened
The interesting part of what passed began by Mr Cliftons affirming with Pope that men had and would have to the end of time each a ruling passion This I denied if by ruling passion were meant the indulgence of any irregular appetite or the fostering of any erroneous system I was asked with a sneer for my recipe to subdue the passions if
it were not too long to be remembered I replied it was equally brief and efficacious It was the force of reason or if the word should please better of truth
And in what year of the world was the discovery of truth to be made
In that very year when instead of being persecuted for speaking their thoughts the free discussion of every opinion true or false should not only be permitted but receive encouragement and applause
As usual the appeal was made to Anna and as usual her decision was in my favour Nothing said she is more fatal to the progress of virtue than the supposition that error is invincible Had I persuaded myself I never could have learned French Italian or
music why learn them I never could For how can that be finished which is never begun But though all the world were to laugh at me I should laugh at all the world were it to tell me it is more difficult to prevent the beginning growth and excess of any passion than it is to learn to play excellently on the piano forte
Is that really your opinion madam said Clifton
It is
Do you include all the passions
All
What The passion of love
Yes Love is as certainly to be conquered as any of them and there is no mistake which has done more mischief than that of supposing it irresistible Young people and we poor girls in particular
having once been thoroughly persuaded of the truth of such an axiom think it in vain to struggle where there are no hopes of victory We are conquered not because we are weak but because we are cowards We seem to be convinced that we have fallen in love by enchantment and are under the absolute dominion of a necromancer It is truly the dwarf leading the giant captive Is it not—Oliver She fixed her eyes upon me as she spoke—Is it not Frank
I was confounded I paused for a moment A deep and heavy sigh involuntarily burst from me I endeavoured to be firm but I stammered out—Madam—it is
I am convinced he is jealous of me
Nay he fears me though he scorns me too much to think so meanly of himself Yet he fears me And what is worse Oliver I fear him I blush for my own debility But let me not endeavour to conceal my weakness No it must be encountered and cured His quick and audacious eye was searching me while I struggled to think and rid myself of confusion and he discovered more than gave him pleasure—She continued
I know of no prejudice more pernicious to the moral conduct of youth than that of this unconquerable passion of love Any and all of our passions are unconquerable whenever we shall be weak enough to think them so Does not the gamester plead the unconquerableness
of his passion The drunkard the man of anger the revengeful the envious the covetous the jealous have they not all the same plea With the selfish and the feeble passion succeeds to passion as different habits give birth to each and the last passion proves more unconquerable than its predecessor How frequently do we see people in the very fever of this unconquerable passion of love which disappears for the rest of their lives after a few weeks possession of the object whom they had so passionately loved How often do they as passionately hate while the violence of their hatred and of their love is perhaps equally guilty
Sir Arthur I observed was happy to join in this new doctrine which however
is true Oliver I am not certain that he too had not his apprehensions concerning me at least his approbation of the principle was ardent
This was not all After a short silence she added and again fixed her eyes on me—Next to the task of subduing our own passions I know none more noble than that of aiding to subdue the passions of others To restore a languishing body is held to be a precious art but to give health to the mind to restore declining genius to its true rank is an art infinitely more inestimable
She rose and I withdrew her words vibrating in my ear where they vibrate still Perceivest thou not their import—Oliver she has formed a project fatal to my hopes Nay I could
almost fear fatal to herself Yet what who can harm her Does the savage the monster exist that could look upon her and do her injury No She is safe She is immaculate Beaming in beauty supreme in virtue the resplendent aegis of truth shields her from attaint
Yes Oliver her answers were to him but the intent the soul of them was directed to me It was a warning spirit that cried beware of indulging an unjustifiable passion Awake at the call of virtue and obey Behold here a sickly mind and aid me in its recovery—To me her language was pointed clear and incapable of other interpretation
But is there not peril in her plan Recover a mind so perverted Strong
I own nay uncommon in its powers for such the mind of Clifton is but its strength is its disease
And is it so certain that for me to love her is error is weakness is vice No Or if it be I have not yet discovered why Oliver she shall hear me Let her shew me my mistake if mistaken I be and I will desist but justice demands it and she shall hear me
We are going to remove at his repeated instances to the hotel where he resides He leads Sir Arthur as he pleases but it grieved me to see her yield so readily Now that I have discovered her intentions I no longer wonder Omnipotent as the power of truth and virtue is I yet cannot approve the design The enterprises of virtue
itself may have their romance—I know not—This to me at least is fatal—Could I— I must conclude—Lose her—For ever—For ever—I must conclude—
F HENLEY
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Paris Hotel de lUniversité
THE assiduity of Clifton my dear Louisa is so great that we already seem to be acquaintance of seven years standing This is evidently his intention His temper is eager impatient of delay quick in resolving and if I do not mistake sometimes precipitate But his intellectual powers are of a very high order His wit is keen his invention
strong his language flowing and elegant and his ideas and figures remarkable sometimes for their humour and at others for their splendour His prejudices are many of them deep nor are they few but he speaks them frankly defends them boldly and courts rather than shuns discussion What then may not be hoped from a mind like his Ought such a mind to be neglected No—No—Eternally no—I have already given a strong hint of this to Frank
I am persuaded that since you saw him he is greatly improved in person The regularity of his features his florid complexion tall stature and the facility and grace of all his motions are with him no common advantages
He has attached himself exceedingly
to us and has induced Sir Arthur to take apartments in the Hotel de lUniversité where he resides himself and where the accommodations are much better the situation more agreeable and the rooms more spacious
A little incident happened when we removed which was characteristic of the manners of the people and drew forth a pleasing trait of the acuteness of Clifton and of his turn of thinking
One of the men who helped us with our luggage after being paid according to agreement asked as is very customary with these people for quelque chose à boire which Sir Arthur not being very expert in the French idiom understood literally He accordingly ordered a bottle of the light common wine and
being thirsty poured some into a tumbler and drank himself first then poured out some more and offered the proter
The man took the glass as Sir Arthur held it out to him and with some surprise and evident sense of insult in his countenance said to Sir Arthur—à moi monsieur To which Sir Arthur perfectly at a loss to comprehend his meaning made no answer and the man without tasting the liquor set the glass down on a bench in the yard
Clifton well acquainted with the manners of the people and knowing the man imagined Sir Arthur meant to insult him by giving him the same glass out of which he had drunken with great alacrity took it up the moment the man had set it down and said—Non mon
ami cest à moi—and drank off the wine He then called for another tumbler and filling it gave it to the man
The French are a people of active and lively feelings and the poor fellow after receiving the glass from Clifton took up the other empty tumbler poured the wine back into it said in his own language forgive me sir I see I am in the wrong and immediately drank out of the tumbler which he had before refused
Each country you perceive Louisa has its own ideas of delicacy The French think it very strange to see two people drink out of the same vessel Not however that I suppose every porter in Paris would refuse wine if offered for the same reason Neither would they
all with the same sensibility be so ready to retract
The good humour as well as the good sense of Cliftons reproof pleased me highly and we must all acknowledge him our superior in the art of easily conforming to the customs of foreigners and in readily pardoning even their absurdities For foreigners Louisa have their absurdities as well as ourselves
But I have not yet done I have another anecdote to relate of Clifton from which I augur still more
I had observed our Thomas in conversation with a man who from his dress and talking to Thomas I knew must be an Englishman and the care which it becomes me to take that such wellmeaning but simple people should not
be deceived led me to inquire who he was Thomas began to stammer not with guilt but with a desire of telling a story which he knew not how to tell so well as he wished At last we understood from him it was a young English lad who had neither money meat nor work and who was in danger of starving because he could find no means of returning to his own country Poor Thomas finding himself among a kind of heathens as he calls the French pitied his case very sincerely and had supplied him with food for some days promising that he would soon take an opportunity of speaking to me whom he is pleased to call the best young lady in the world and I assure you Louisa I am proud of his good word
Your brother heard this account and immediately said—For indeed I wished to know what his feelings were and therefore did not offer to interrupt him Desire him to come up Let me question him If he be really what he says he ought to be relieved but he is very likely some idle fellow who being English makes a trade of watching for English families and living upon this tale So far said I to myself Clifton all is right I therefore let him proceed The lad came up for he was not twenty and your brother began his interrogations
You are an English lad you say
Yes sir
Where do you come from
Wolverhampton
What is your trade
A buckle plater
And did you serve out your apprenticeship
No
How so
My master and I quarrelled he struck me I beat him and was obliged to run away
Where did you run to
I went to London I have an aunt there a poor woman who chairs for gentlefolks and I went to her
How came you here
She got me a place with a young gentleman who was going on his travels I had been among horses before I was bound prentice and he hired me as his groom
But how came you to leave him
He is a very passionate gentleman He has got a French footman who stands and shrugs and lets him give him thumps and kicks and one morning because one boot was brighter than tother he was going to horsewhip me So I told him to keep his hands off or I would knock him down
Why you are quite a fighting fellow
No sir I never fought with any body in my life if they did not first meddle with me
So you quarrelled with your master beat him ran away from your apprenticeship got a place came into a foreign country and then because your master did not happen to please you threatened to knock him down
The poor fellow was quite confounded and I was half out of breath from an apprehension that Clifton had taken the wrong side of the question But I was soon relieved—This tale is too artless to be false said he turning to me—You cannot conceive Louisa the infinite pleasure which these few words gave me—I still continued silent and watching not the lad but your brother
So you never meddle with any body who does not meddle with you
No sir I would scorn it
But you will not be horsewhipped
No sir I wont starve or not starve
I need not ask you if you are honest sober and industrious for I know you will say you are
Why should I not sir
You have nobody to give you a character have you
My master is still in Paris but to be sure he will give me a bad one
Can you tell me his address—where he lives
I cant tell it in French but here it is
Can you write and read
Yes sir
And how long have you been out of place
Above seven weeks
Why did not you return to England when you received your wages
I had no money I owed a fellow servant a guinea and a half which I had borrowed to buy shirts and stockings
And those you have made away with
Not all I was obliged to take some of them to Mount Pity
Mont Piété you mean
Belike yes sir
Well heres something for you for the present and come to me tomorrow morning
The lad went away with more in his countenance than he knew how to put into speech and I asked Clifton what he meant by desiring him to come again I intend madam said he to make some inquiries of his master and if they please me to hire him for I want a servant and if I am not deceived he will make a good one
Think Louisa whether I were not pleased with this proof of discernment By this accident I learned more of Cliftons character in ten minutes than perhaps I might have done in ten months He saw for I wished him to see that he had acted exactly as I could have desired
He appears indeed to be a favourite with servants which certainly is no bad omen He is Lauras delight He is a free gentleman a generous gentleman I suppose he gives her money a merry gentleman and has the handsomest person the finest eye and the best manner of dressing his hair she ever beheld—She quite overflows in his praise
In a few days we are to go to the
country seat of the Marquis of Villebrun where we intend to stay about a fortnight Your brother has introduced us to all his friends among whom is the marquis and as we are intimate with our ambassador we have more invitations than we can accept and acquaintance than we can cultivate Frank is to go with us
And now Louisa with anxiety I own my mind is far from satisfied I have not thought sufficiently to convince myself yet act as though I had It is little less than open war between your brother and Frank The supposition of a duty too serious to be trifled with has induced me to favour rather than repulse the too eager advances of Clifton
though this supposed duty has been but half examined
The desire to retrieve mind cannot but be right yet the mode may be wrong
At this moment my heart bitterly reproaches me for not proceeding on more certain principles The merit of Frank is great almost beyond the power of expression I need not tell my Louisa which way affection were it encouraged would incline but I will not be its slave Nor can I reproach myself for erring on that side but for acting in resistance to inclination with too little reserve No arguments I believe can shew me that I have a right to sport with the feelings of my father and my friends though those feelings are founded
in prejudice But my inquiries shall be more minute and my resolves will then be more permanent and selfcomplacent
Adieu my best and dearest friend Write often reprove me for all that I do amiss—Would my mind were more accordant with itself But I will take it roundly to task
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
Paris Hotel de lUniversité
THIS brief memorandum of my actual existence dear Fairfax will be delivered to you by the Chevalier de Villeroi a worthy gentleman to whom I have given letters to my friends and who will meet you at Turin
I have not a moment to waste therefore can only say that I am laying close
siege that my lines of circumvallation do not proceed quite so rapidly as my desires but that I have just blown up the main bastion or in other words have prevailed on Sir Arthur to send this hornet this Frank Henley back to England The fellows aspiring insolence is not to be endured His merit is said to be uncommon Tis certain he strains after the sublime and in fact is too deep a thinker nay I suspect too deep a plotter not to be dangerous Adieu
C CLIFTON
I am in a rage Curse the fellow He has countermined me blown up
my works I might easily have foreseen it had I not been a stupid boody I could beat my thick scull against the wall I have neither time nor patience to tell you what I mean except that here he is and here he will remain in my despite
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
Paris Hotel de lUniversité
IT is as I told thee Oliver He fears me He treats me as he thinks with the neglect and contempt due to an unqualified intruder but he mistakes his own motives and acts with insidious jealousy nay descends to artifice His alarmed spirit never rests he is ever on the watch lest at entering a room descending a staircase stepping into
her carriage or on any other occasion I should touch her hand He has endeavoured to exclude me from all their parties and though often successfully has several times been foiled
But his greatest disappointment was this very morning Sir Arthur sent for me last night to inform me I must return to WenbourneHill with some necessary orders which he did not choose to trust to the usual mode of conveyance I immediately suspected and I think I did not do him injustice that my rival was the contriver of this sudden necessity of my return
I received Sir Arthurs orders but was determined immediately to acquaint Anna
Clifton was present She was surprised
and I doubt not had the same suspicions as myself for after telling me I must not think of going she obliged Clifton himself to be the intercessor with Sir Arthur that I should stay His reluctance feigned assent and chagrin were visible
Her words and manner to me were kind nay I could almost think they were somewhat more She seemed to feel the injustice aimed at me and to feel it with as much resentment as a spirit so benignant could know
What—Can he not be satisfied with half excluding me from her society with endeavouring to sink me as low in her estimation as in his own and with exercising all that arrogance which he supposes becoming the character of a gentleman
Oliver I am determined in my plan my appeal shall be to her justice If it prove to be illfounded why then I must acquiesce I am angry at my own delay at my own want of courage but I shall find a time and that quickly At least if condemned I must be I will be heard but equity I think is on my side—Yes—I will be heard
F HENLEY
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
Paris Hotel de lUniversité
AID me if thou canst Oliver to think or rather to unravel my own entangled thoughts Do not suffer me to continue in a state of delusion if thou perceivest it to be such Be explicit tell me if thou dost but so much as forebode for at moments I myself despond though at others I am wafted to the heaven
of heavens to certainty and bliss unutterable If I deceive myself—Well—And if I do what is to follow—Rashness—Cowardice—What Basely abandon duty virtue and energy—No
Looks words appearances daily events are all so contradictory that the warfare of hope and fear increases and becomes violent almost to distraction Clifton is openly countenanced by Sir Arthur treated kindly by her and is incessant in every kind of assiduity His qualities are neither mean insignificant nor common No they are brilliant and rare With a person as near perfection as his mind will permit it to be a knowledge of languages a taste for the fine arts much bravery high notions of
honour a more than common share of wit keen and ungovernable feelings an impatience of contradiction and an obstinacy in error he is a compound of jarring elements that augur tempests and peril Vain haughty and selfwilled his family his fortune his accomplishments and himself are the pictures that fascinate his eye It is attracted for a moment by the superior powers of another but all his passions and propensities forebode that he is not to be held even by that link of adamant
And is she to be dazzled then by this glare Can her attention be caught by person attracted by wit And does she not shrink from that haughty pride which so continually turns to contemplate
itself from those passions which are so eager to be gratified and from those mistakes which it will be so almost impossible to eradicate Even were I to lose her must I see her thus devoted—The thought is—I cannot tell what Too painful for any word short of extravagance
Impressed by feelings like these the other day I sat down and threw a few ideas into verse The mind surcharged with passion is eager by every means to disburthen itself It is always prompt to hope that the expression of its feelings if any way adequate cannot but produce the effect it wishes and I wrote the following song or loveelegy or what thou wilt
Rash hope avaunt Be still my fluttring heart
Nor breathe a sorrow nor a sigh impart
Appease each bursting throb each pang reprove
To suffer dare—But do not dare to love
Down down these swelling thoughts Nor dream that worth
Can pass the haughty bounds of wealth and birth
Yes kindred feelings truth and virtue prove
Yes dare deserve—But do not dare to love
To noble tasks and dangrous heights aspire
Bid all the great and good thy wishes fire
The mighty dead thy rival efforts move
And dare to die—But do not dare to love
Thou knowest her supreme excellence in music the taste feeling and expression with which she plays and th• enchanting sweetness and energy with which she sings Having written my verses I took them when she was busie•
elsewhere to the pianoforte and made some unsuccessful attempts to please myself with an air to them Sir Arthur came in and I left my stanzas on the desk of the instrument very inadvertently I assure thee though I was afterward far from sorry that they had been forgotten
I have frequently indulged myself in sitting in an antichamber to listen to her playing and singing I have thought that she is most impassioned when alone and perhaps all musicians are so The next day happening to listen in the manner I have mentioned I heard her singing an air which was new to me and remarked that she once or twice stopped to consider and make alterations
I listened again and found she had been setting my verses
By my soul Oliver I have no conception of rapture superior to what I experienced at that moment She had collected all her feelings all her invention had composed a most beautiful air and sung it with an effect that must have been heard to be supposed possible The force with which she uttered every thought to the climax of daring and the compassion which she infused into the conclusion—But do not dare to love—produced the most affecting contrast I ever heard
This indeed was heaven Oliver Bu• a heaven that ominously vanished at th•
entrance of Clifton I followed him and saw her shut the book and wipe the tear from her eye Her flow of spirits is unfailing but the tone of her mind was raised too high suddenly to sink into trifling She looked at me two or three times I know not for my part what aspect I wore but I could observe that the haughty Clifton felt the gaiety of his heart in some sort disturbed and was not pleased to catch me listening with such mute attention to the ravishing music she had made
Once again prithee tell me Oliver what am I to think It was impossible she should have sung as she did had not the ideas affected her more than I could have hoped nay as much as they did myself She knew the writing Why
did she sigh Why feel indignant Why express every sentiment that had passed through my mind with increasing force—What could she think—Did she not approve—She sung as if she admired—The world shall not persuade me that her looks were not the true expressions of her heart and she looked— Recollect her and the temper of mind she was in and imagine how—Remember—She could love me if I would let her
I was displeased with the verses when I had written them they were very inadequate to what I wished I discovered in some of the lines a barren repetition of the preceding thought and meant to have corrected them But I would not now alter a word for worlds She has
deigned to set and sing them and what was before but of little worth is now inestimable
Yet am I far from satisfied with myself My present state of mind is disgraceful for it cannot but be disgraceful to be kept in doubt by my own cowardice And if I am deceiving myself—Can it be possible Oliver—But if I am my present error is indeed alarming The difficulty of retreating momentarily increases and every step in advance will be miles in return
Clifton will suffer no impediment from the cowardice of which I complain for I much mistake if he has been accustomed to refusal or if he can scarcely think when he deigns to sue denial possible
I find myself every day determining to put an end to this suspense and every day delaying The impulse however is too great to be long resisted and my excuse to myself continually is that I have not yet found the proper moment
If Oliver this history of my heart be troublesome to thee it is thy duty to tell me so But indeed thou tellest me the contrary and I know not why at this instant I should do thee the injustice to doubt thy sincerity Forgive me It is a friendly fear and not intended to do thee wrong But I wish thee to judge of me and my actions and even to let thy father judge if thou shouldest at any time hesitate and fear I am committing error Do this and continue
thy usual kindness in communicating thy thoughts
F HENLEY
P S
The day after tomorrow we are to set off for the Chateau de Villebrun on a party of pleasure as it is called Thus men run from place to place without knowing of what they are in search They feel vacuity a want of something to make them happy but what that something is they have not yet discovered
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Paris Hotel de lUniversité
IFEAR my dear Louisa I am at I resent hurried forward a little too fast to act with all the caution which I could wish My mind is not coherent not at peace with itself Ideas rush in multitudes and more than half obscure my understanding
I find that since we left WenbourneHill
Frank has grown upon my thoughts very strangely Indeed till then I was but partially acquainted with his true character the energy of which is very uncommon But though his virtues are become more conspicuous the impediments that forbid any thought of union are not lessened
My chief difficulty is I do not yet know how to give full effect to my arguments so as to produce such conviction as he shall be unable to resist Let me do but this and I have no doubt of his perfect acquiescence and resignation But should I fail the warfare of the passions will be prolonged and for a time a youth whose worth is above my praise rendered unhappy A sense of injustice committed by the person of whom perhaps
he thought too highly to suppose it possible that either error or passion should render her so culpable may prey upon his peace and destroy the felicity of one to whom reason and recollection tell me I cannot wish too much good
I am convinced I have been guilty of another mistake I have on various occasions been desirous of expressing approbation mingled with esteem and friendship He has extorted it from me He has obliged me to feel thus And why have I constantly asked myself should I repress or conceal sensations that are the dues of merit No they ought not to have been repressed or concealed but they ought to have been rendered intelligible incapable of misconstruction and not liable to a meaning
which they were never intended to convey For if ever they were more than I suppose I have indeed been guilty
Yes my Louisa let me discharge my conscience Let no accusation of deceit rest with me I can endure any thing but selfreproach I avow therefore Frank Henley is in my estimation the most deserving man I have ever known A man that I could love infinitely A man whose virtues I do and must ever love A man in whose company my heart assures me I could have enjoyed years of happiness If the casuists in such cases should tell me this is what they mean by love why then I am in love
But if the being able without a murmur nay cheerfully to marry another
or see him properly married if the possession of the power and the resolution to do what is right and if an unshaken will to exert this power prove the contrary why then I am not in love
When I may without trespassing on any duty and with the full approbation of my own heart yield up its entire affections the man to whom they shall be devoted shall then find how much I can love
My passions must be ought to be and therefore shall be under my control and being conscious of the purity of my own intentions I have never thought that the emanations of mind ought to be shackled by the dread of their being misinterpreted It is not only cowardly but in my opinion pernicious
Yet with respect to Frank I fear this principle has led me into an error Among other escapes of this kind there is one which has lately befallen me and for which I doubt I am reprehensible
Frank has written a song in which his feelings and situation are very strongly expressed He left it on my music desk by accident for his character is too open too determined to submit to artifice The words pleased me I may say affected me so very much that I was tempted to endeavour to adapt an air to them which when it was written I several times repeated and accompanied myself on the pianoforte Your brother came in just as I had ended and from a hint which he purposely gave I
suspect that Frank had been listening in the antichamber
The behaviour of Frank afterward confirmed the supposition He followed your brother and sat down while we conversed His whole soul seemed absorbed but not as I have sometimes seen it in melancholy Satisfaction pleasure I know not whether rapture would be too strong a word for the expressions which were discoverable in his countenance
My own mind had the moment before been impassioned and the same sensations thrilling as it were through my veins might mislead me and induce me to suppose things that had no existence Still I do not think I was mistaken And if not what have I done Have
I not thoughtlessly betrayed him into a belief that I mean to favour a passion which I should think it criminal to encourage
I know not why I delay so long to explain my sentiments It is the weak fear of not doing justice to my cause of not convincing and of making him unhappy for whom I would sacrifice my life every thing but principle to make him the very reverse
However this must and shall soon be ended I do not pretend to fix a day but it shall not be a very distant one I will arrange my thoughts collect my whole force and make an essay which I am convinced cannot fail unless by my fault The task is perhaps the most severe I have ever yet undertaken I will
remember this and I hope my exertions will be adequate
Adieu my dear Louisa and when you come to this place imagine me for a moment in your arms
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
Chateau de Villebrun
NEVER was fellow so pestered with malverse accidents as I am and all of my own contriving I am the prince of Numskulls The journey to the Chateau was a project of my own and whom should I meet here but the Count de Beaunoir The very same with whom
I was prevented from fighting by this insolent son of a steward They knew each other instantly and the whole story was told in the presence of Anna My foolish pride would never before let me mention to her that a fellow like him could oblige me to put up the sword I had drawn in anger Nor can I now tell why I did not run him through the instant he dared to interfere
I cut a cursed ridiculous figure But the youth is running up a long score which I foresee he will shortly be obliged to discharge Damn him I cannot think of him with common patience I know not why I ever mention his name
I have raised another nest of wasps
about my ears The French fops here all buzz and swarm around her each making love to her with all the shrugs grimaces and ready made raptures of which he is master and to which I am obliged patiently to listen or shew myself an ass These fellows submit to every kind of monopoly except of woman and to pretend an exclusive right to her is in their opinion only worthy of a barbarian But the most forward and tormenting of them all is my quondam friend the Count who is half a lunatic but of so diverting a kind that ere a man has time to be angry he either cuts a caper utters an absurdity or acts some mad antic or other that sets gravity at defiance
Not that any man who had the smallest
pretensions to common sense could be jealous either of him or any one of these apes And yet jealous I am My dotage Fairfax is come very suddenly upon me and neither you nor any one of the spirited fellows whose company I used to delight in can despise me half so much as I despise myself—A plebeian—A— I could drink gall eat my elbows renounce all my gods and turn Turk—Ay laugh if you will what care I—
I have taken a turn into the park in search of a little cool air and common sense
All the world is met here on purpose to be merry and merry they are determined
to be The occasion is a marriage in the true French style between my very good friend the Marquis de Villebrun an old fellow upwards of sixty and a young creature of fifteen a child a chit just taken out of a convent in which but for this or some such preposterous match she might have remained till time should have bestowed wrinkles and ugliness as bountifully upon her as it has done upon her Narcissus the bridegroom The women flock busily round her in their very goodnatured way purposely to form her The men too are very willing to lend their aid and under such tuition she cannot but improve apace Why are not you here Fairfax I have had twenty temptations to take her under
my pupillage but that I dare not risk the loss of this divinity
The purpose of our meeting however is as I said to be joyous It is teeming time therefore with every brain that has either wit folly or fancy enough to contribute to the general festivity And various are their inventions and stratagems to excite surprise attract visitors and keep up the holiday farce of the scene Musicians painters artists jugglers sages all whose fame no matter of what motley kind has reached the public ear and whom praise or pay can bring together are assembled Poets are invited to read their productions and as reading well is no mean art and writing well still much more difficult you may think what kind of an exhibition
your every day poetasters make Yet like a modern play they are certain of unbounded applause
Last night we had a Fête Champêtre which it must be granted was a most accurate picture of nature and the manners of rustics The simplicity of the shepherd life could not but be excellently represented by the ribbands jewels gauze tiffany and fringe with which we were bedaubed and the ragouts fricassees spices sauces wines and liqueurs with which we were regaled Not to mention being served upon plate by an army of footmen But then it was in the open air and that was prodigiously pastoral
When we were sufficiently tired of eating and drinking we all got up to
dance and the mild splendour of the moon was utterly eclipsed by the glittering dazzle of some hundreds of lamps red green yellow and blue the rainbow burlesqued all mingled in fantastic wreaths and forms and suspended among the foliage that the trees might be as fine as ourselves The invention disposition and effect however were highly applauded And since the evil was small and the mirth great what could a man do but shake his ears kick his heels cut capers laugh sing shout squall and be as mad as the best
Tomorrow night we are to have fireworks which will be no less rural I was in a splenetic humour and indulged myself in an exclamation against such
an abominable waste of gunpowder for which I got reproved by my angelic monitress who told me that of all its uses and abuses this was the most innocent
I suppose our stay here will not be less than a fortnight But I have left orders for all letters to be sent after me so that your heroic epistles will come safe and soon to hand
Which is all at this present writing from
your very humble servant to command C CLIFTON
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Chateau de Villebrun
IN compliance with the very warm entreaties of our kind French friends we have been hurried away from the metropolis sooner than was intended We are at present in the country at the Chateau de Villebrun where if we are not merry it is not for the want of laughing
Our feet and our tongues are never still We dance talk sing ride sail or rather paddle about in a small but romantic lake in short we are never out of exercise
Clifton is as active as the best and is very expert in all feats of agility With the French he seems to dance for the honour of his nation and with me from a desire to prove that the man who makes pretensions to me which he now does openly enough is capable of every excellence
You know Louisa how much I despise the affectation of reserve but he is so enterprising a youth that I am sometimes obliged though very unwillingly to exert a little mild authority
The French old or young ugly or
handsome all are lovers and are as liberal of their amorous sighs and addresses as if each were an Adonis Clifton is well acquainted with foreign manners or I can perceive their gallantry to me would make him half mad As it is he has been little less than rude to one or two of the most forward of my pretended admirers
I speak in the plural as if we were rather in town than at a country seat and so we appear to be The French nobility do not seem to have any taste for solitude Their love of variety induces them to change the scene but the same tumult of guests and visitors coming and going is every where their delight Whatever can attract company they seek with avidity I am dear to them
because I am an English beauty as they tell me and all the world is desirous of paying its court to me
Clifton has equal or perhaps greater merits of the same kind And I assure you Louisa the women here can pay their court more artfully and almost as openly as the men
Frank is idolized by them because he reads Shakespeare You would wonder to hear the praises they bestow upon him and which indeed he richly deserves though not one in ten of them understands a word he says Cest beau Cest magnifique Cest superbe Cest sublime Such is their continual round of goodnatured superlatives which they apply on all occasions with a sincere desire to make others as happy as they endeavour
to persuade themselves to be Frank treats their gallantry with a kind of silent contempt otherwise he would be a much greater favourite
Perhaps you will be surprised to find me still guilty of procrastination and to hear me describing French manners instead of the mode in which I addressed a youth whom I have accused myself of having in a certain sense misled and kept in suspense I can only answer that my intentions have been frustrated chiefly indeed by this country excursion though in part by other accidents My mind has not indulged itself in indolence it could not it is too deeply interested But the more I have thought the more have I been confirmed in my former opinion This is the hour of
trial this is the time to prove I have some real claims to that superiority which I have been so ready to flatter myself I possess Were there nothing to regret nay were there not something to suffer where would be the merit of victory—But on the other hand how much is there to gain—A mind of the first order to be retrieved—A Clifton—A brother of Louisa
This appears to be a serious crisis Again I must repeat how much I am afraid of being hurried forward too fast An error at this moment might be fatal Clifton is so much alarmed by the particular respect which the Count de Beaunoir A pleasant kind of madman who
is a visitant here pays me that he has this instant been with me confessed a passion for me in all the strong and perhaps extravagant language which custom has seemed t authorise and has entreated with a degree of warmth and earnestness that could scarcely be resisted my permission to mention the matter immediately to Sir Arthur
It became me to speak without disguise I told him I was far from insensible of his merits that a union with the brother of my Louisa if propriety duty and affection should happen to combine would be the first wish of my heart that I should consider any affectation and coyness as criminal but that I was not entirely free from doubt and before I could agree to the proposal being
made to Sir Arthur I thought it necessary we should mutually compare our thoughts and scrutinize as it were each other to the very soul that we might not act rashly in the most serious of all the private events of life—You know my heart Louisa at least as well as I myself know it and I am fearful of being precipitate
He seemed rather disappointed and was impatient to begin the conversation I wished for immediately
I told him I was unprepared my thoughts were not sufficiently collected and that the hurry in which we at present exist would scarcely allow me time to perform so necessary a duty But that I might avoid the least suspicion of coquetry if it were his desire I would
shut myself up for a day from company and examine whether there were any real impediments that I would ask myself what my hopes and expectations were and that I requested or indeed expected that he should do the same I added however that if he pleased it would be much more agreeable to me to defer this serious task at least till we should return to Paris
He repeated my words if it would be much more agreeable to me impatient and uneasy though he owned he was he must submit
I answered I required no submission except to reason to which I hoped both he and I should always be subject
Love he replied was so disdainful of restraint that it would not acknowledge
the control of reason itself However by representing to him how particular our mutual absence from the company would seem unless we could condescend to tell some falsehood which I would not I said suppose possible to either of us I prevailed on him to subscribe to this short delay
His passions and feelings are strong One minute he seemed affected by the approbation which as far as I could with truth I did not scruple to bestow on his many superior gifts and the next to conceive some chagrin that I should for a moment hesitate The noblest natures Louisa are the most subject to pride can the least endure neglect and are aptest to construe whatever
is not directly affirmative in their favour into injustice
With respect to the Count de Beaunoir he has been more passionate in expressing how much he admires me than my reserve to him can have authorised except so far as he follows the manners of his country and the impulse of his peculiar character I suppose he means little though he has said much Not that I am certain He may be more in earnest than I desire but I hope he is not because if I am to be your sister as well as your friend I should be sorry that any thing should excite a shadow of doubt in the mind of Clifton
The Count is one of the Provençal nobility a whimsical creature with an
imagination amazingly rapid but extravagant Your brother calls him Count Shatterbrain and I tell him that he forgets he has some claim to the title himself The Count has read the old Provençal poets and romance writers till he has made himself a kind of Don Quixote except that he has none of the Dons delightful systematic gravity The Count on the contrary amuses by his want of system and his quick changeable incongruity He is in raptures one moment with what he laughs at the next Were it not for the mad follies of jealousy against which we cannot be too guarded the manner in which he addresses or in his own language adores me would be pleasant If I
wished to pass my life in laughing I would certainly marry the Count
I am called to dinner Adieu
Ever and ever yours A W ST IVES
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Chateau de Villebrus
MY alarms Louisa increase and with them my anxious wishes for an eclaircissement with Frank Clifton has too strongly imbibed high but false notions of honour and revenge His quick apt and versatile talents are indubitable He wants nothing but the
power to curb and regulate his passions to render him all that his generous and excellent sister could desire But at present his sensibility is too great He scarcely can brook the slightest tokens of disapprobation He is rather too firmly persuaded that he deserves applause and admiration and that reproof he scarcely can deserve or if he did to submit to it he imagines would be dishonourable
Frank and he behave more than usually cool to each other I know not why unless it has been occasioned by an incident which happened yesterday Clifton has bought an English hunter from one of his countrymen at Paris which he was exhibiting to his French friends whose horsemanship is very different
from ours and who were surprised to see him ride so fearlesly over gates and other impediments They continued their airing in the park of Villebrun and turned round to a kind of haha which was both deep and wide and about half full of water by the side of which they saw a party of ladies standing and me among the rest Frank was with us
One of the gentlemen asked whether the horse could leap over the haha to which Clifton made no answer but immediately clapped spurs to his hunter and over he flew The whole company gentlemen and ladies broke out into exclamations of surprise and Clifton turned his horses head round and regained his former place
While they were wondering Frank Henley happened to make it a matter of doubt whether a man or a horse could leap the farthest and Clifton continually in the habit of contending with Frank said it was ridiculous to start such an argument unless he would first shew that he himself could make the same leap Frank piqued in his turn retired a few yards and without pulling off his coat or deigning to leap he made a short run and a hop and sprung over
You may imagine that the kind and good folks who love to be astonished and still more to tell the greatness of their astonishment were manifold in their interjections Frank in order to rejoin the company was obliged a second time to cross the haha which he did with
the same safety and truly amazing agility as he had done before
Clifton indulging his wrong habits though I have no doubt admiring Frank as much as the rest told him in a kind of sarcastic banter that though he could not prove the equality of mankind he had at least proved himself equal to a horse To which Frank replied he was mistaken for that he had shewn himself equal to the horse and his rider
This answer I fear dwells upon the mind of Clifton and I scarcely myself can tell whether it were or were not worthy of Frank How can Clifton be wilfully blind to such courage rectitude of heart understanding and genius
The stern unrelenting fortitude of Frank in the cause of justice and some
fymptoms of violence in the impetuous Clifton have inspired me with apprehensions and have induced me to behave with more reserve and coldness to Frank than I ever before assumed
Yet Louisa my heart is wrung to see the effect it produces He has a mind of such discriminating power such magnanimity that an injury to it is a deep a double sin and every look every action testify that he thinks himself injured by the distance with which I behave Oh that he himself might be impelled to begin the subject with which my mind is labouring
This is wrong I am ashamed of my own cowardice Yet would there not be something terrifying in a formal appointment to tell him what it seems
must be told—Yes Louisa must—And is there not danger he should think me severe nay unjust—Would it were over—I hope he will not think so of me—It must be done—Must—Must—
Indeed Louisa I could be a very woman—But I will not—No no—It is passed—I have put my handkerchief to my eyes and it is gone—I have repressed an obstinate heaving of the heart—
Let her blame me if I deserve it but my Louisa must see me as I am—Yet I will conquer—Be sure I will—But I must not sing his song any more
A W ST IVES
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
Chateau de Villebrun
OH my friend my heart is torn I am on the rack My thoughts are all tumult My passions rebel I seem to have yielded up the best prerogative of man reason and to have admitted revolt anarchy and desolation
Her manner is changed Wholly
She is become cold reserved has marked me out for neglect smiles on me no more not a sigh escapes her And why What have I done I am unconscious Have I been too presuming Perhaps so But why did her looks never till now speak her meaning as intelligibly as they do at present I could not then have mistaken them Why till now has she seemed to regard me with that sweet amenity which was so flattering to hope
Perhaps in the distraction of my thoughts I am unjust to her And shall I pretending as I do to love so pure shall I become her accuser What if she meant no more than that commerce of grateful kindness which knits together
human society and renders it delightful
Yet this sudden change So evidently intentional The smiles too which she bestows on the brother of Louisa and the haughty airs of triumph which he assumes what can these be Confident in himself ardent in his desires unchecked by those fears which are the offspring of true delicacy his passions violent and his pride almost insufferable he thinks he loves But he is ignorant of the alarms the tremors the fitful fevers of love
I cannot endure my present torture I must seek a desperate end to it by explanation Why do I delay Coward that I am What worse can happen than
despair And is not despair itself preferable to that worst of fiends suspense What do I mean by despair Would I being rejected desert my duty sink into self and poorly linger in wretchedness or basely put an end to existence Violently end that which ought to be devoted to the good of others—How did so infernal a thought enter my mind—Can I be so very lost a thing—No—Despair is something confused something horrid I know not what It may intrude upon me at black and dismal intervals but it shall not overwhelm me I will shake it off I will meet my destiny
The clouds are gathering the strom approaches I hear the distant thunder rolling this way it drives it points at
me it must suddenly burst Be it so Grant me but the spirit of a man and I yet shall brave its fury If I am a poor braggart a half believer in virtue or virtuous only in words the feeble victim then must justly perish
I cannot endure my torments Cannot because there is a way to end them It shall be done
I blush to read blush to recollect the rhapsodies of my own perturbed mind Madman Tis continually thus Day after day I proceed reasoning reproving doubting wishing believing and despairing alternately
Once again where is this strange impossibility—In what does it consist—Are we not both human beings—What law of Nature has place•
her beyond my hopes—What is rank Does it imply superiority of mind Or is there any other superiority—Am I not a man—And who is more Have the titled earned their dignities by any proofs of exalted virtue Were not these dignities things of accident in which the owners had no share and of which they are generally unworthy And shall hope be thus cowed and killed without my daring to exert the first and most unalienable of the rights of man freedom of thought Shall I not examine what these high distinctions truly are of which the bearers are so vain
This Clifton— Thou knowest not how he treats me And can she approve can she second his injustice—
Surely not—Yet does she not dedicate her smiles to him her conversation her time Does she not shun me discountenance me and reprove me by her silence and her averted eyes
Once again it must and shall have an end—I have repeated this too often but my next shall shew thee I am at length determined
F HENLEY
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Chateau de Villebrun
AN affair has just happened in this country which is the universal topic of conversation The daughter of a noble and wealthy family has fallen in love with a man of uncommon learning science and genius but a musician In consequence of his great skill and reputation
he was employed to teach her music and she it appears was too sensible at least for the decorum of our present manners of his worth
The ability to discover his merit implies merit in herself and the musician and lady were equally enamoured of each other A plan for elopement consequently was laid and put in execution but not effectually for before the lovers had passed the confines of the kingdom they were pursued and overtaken
The musician knew his own personal danger and by a stratagem fortunately escaped from his bonds and attained a place of safety The lady was brought back and from the severity of the French laws and the supposed atrocity
of the crime it is generally affirmed that the musician notwithstanding his talents and fame had he been secured would have been executed
I have mentioned this adventure my dear Louisa not so much for its own sake as for what relates to myself It was natural that I should feel compassion for mistakes if mistakes they be which have so great an affinity to virtue and that I should plead for the lovers and against the barbarity of laws so unjust and inhuman For it is certain that had not the musician been put to death his least punishment would have been perpetual imprisonment
In a former letter I mentioned the increasing alarms of Sir Arthur and
this was a fit opportunity for him to shew how very serious and great those alarms are He opposed me while I argued in behalf of the lovers with what might in him be called violence affirmed it was a crime for which no merit or genius could compensate highly applauded those wholesome laws that prevented such crimes and preserved the honour of noble families from attaint lamented the want of similar laws in England and spoke of the conduct of the young lady with a degree of bitterness which from him was unusual In fine the spirit of his whole discourse was evidently to warm me and explicitly to declare what his opinions on this subject are
Had I before wanted conviction he
fully convinced me on this occasion of the impossibility of any union between me and Frank Henley at least without sacrificing the felicity of my father and my family and from being generally and sincerely beloved by them rendering myself the object of eternal reproach and almost of hatred
Previous to this conversation I was uneasy at the state of my own mind and particularly at what I suppose to be the state of Mr Henleys and this uneasiness is at present very much increased
Once again Louisa it must immediately have an end I can support it no longer I must be firm My halfstaggering resolution is now fixed I cannot must not doubt My father and family
must not be sacrificed to speculative probabilities Frank is the most deserving of mankind and that it should be a duty to reject the most deserving of mankind as the friend of my life my better self my husband is strange but I am nevertheless convinced that a duty it is Yes the conflicts of doubt are over I must and will persevere
Poor Frank To be guilty of injustice to a nature so noble to wring a heart so generous and to neglect desert so unequalled is indeed a killing thought But the stern the unrelenting dictates of necessity must be obeyed The neglect the injustice and the cruelty are the worlds not mine my heart disavows them revolts at them detests them
Heaven bless my Louisa and give her superior prudence to guard and preserve her from these too strong susceptibilities May the angel of fortitude never forsake her as she seems half inclined to do her poor
A W ST IVES
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Chateau de Villebrun
AT last my dear Louisa the charm is broken the spell of silence is dissolved Incapable any longer of restraint passion has burst its bounds and strong though the contest was victory has declared for reason
My change of behaviour has produced this effect Not that I applaud myself on the contrary I am far from pleased with my own want of fortitude I have even assumed an austerity which I did not feel
I do not mean to say that all appearances relative to myself were false No I was uneasy desirous to speak desirous that he should speak and could accomplish neither I accused myself of having given hopes that were seductive and wished to retract In short I have not been altogether so consistent as I ought to be as my letters to you my friend will witness
Various little incidents preceded and indeed helped to produce this swell and overflow of the heart and the eclaircissement
that followed In the morning at breakfast Frank took the cakes I usually eat to hand to me and Clifton whose watchful spirit is ever alert caught up a plate of bread and butter to offer me at the same instant His looks shewed he expected the preference I was sorry for it and paused for a moment At last the principle of not encouraging Frank prevailed and I took some bread and butter from Clifton It was a repetition of slights which Frank had lately met with and he felt it yet he bowed with a tolerable grace and put down his plate
He soon after quitted the room but returned unperceived by me
The young marchioness had breakfasted and retired to her toilet where
some of the gentlemen were attending her She had left a snuffbox of considerable value with me which I had forgotten to return and with that kind of sportive cheerfulness which I rather encourage than repress I called—
Here Where are all my esquires I want a messenger
Clifton heard me and Frank was unexpectedly at my elbow Had I known it I should not have spoken so thoughtlessly Frank came forward and bowed Clifton called—
Here am I ready fair lady to execute your behests
I was a second time embarrassed After a short hesitation I said—
No—I have changed my mind
Frank retired but Clifton advanced
with his usual gaiety answering—
Nay nay I have not earned half a crown yet this morning and I must not be cheated of my fare
I would still have refused but I perceived Clifton began to look serious and I said to him—
Well well good man here then take this snuffbox to the marchioness she may want it but do not blunder and break it for if you do I shall dismiss you my service Recollect the picture in the lid set with diamonds
It was fated to be a day of mortification to Frank His complaisance had induced him to comply with the request of the marchioness that he would read one of the mad scenes in Lear though he knew she had not the least acquaintance
with the English language But she wanted amusement and was pleased to mark the progress of the passions which I never saw so distinctly and highly expressed as in his countenance when he reads Shakespeare
I happened to come into her apartment for the French are delightfully easy of access and the reading was instantly interrupted I was the very person she wanted to see How should we spend the evening The country was horribly dull There had been no new visitors these two days Should we have a dance I gave my assent and away she ran to tell every body
I followed Frank came after me and with some reluctance foreboding a repulse asked whether he should have
the pleasure to dance with me His manner and the foregone circumstances made me guess his question before he spoke
My answer was—I have just made a promise to myself that I will dance with Mr Clifton
It was true the thought had passed through my mind
Mr Clifton madam
Yes—
You—you—
I have not seen Mr Clifton Right—But I said I had made the promise to myself
Poor Frank could contain no longer I see madam said he I am despised and I deserve contempt I crouch to it I invite it and have obtained a full portion of it—Yet why—What have I
done—Why is this sudden change—The false glitter that deceives mankind then is irresistible—But surely madam justice is as much my due as if my name were Clifton Spurn me trample on me when I sully myself by vice and infamy But till then I should once have hoped to have escaped being humbled in the dust by one whom I regarded as the most benignant as well as the most deserving and equitable of earthly creatures
This is indeed a heavy charge and I am afraid much of it is too true Here is company coming I am sorry I cannot answer it immediately
I can suffer any thing rather than exist under my present tortures Will you favour me so far madam as to grant me half an hours hearing
Willingly It is what I wish Come to my apartment after dinner
Clifton came up and I have no doubt read in our countenances that something more than common had passed Indeed I perceived it or thought so but his imagination took another turn in consequence of my informing him that I had been just telling Frank I had promised myself to be his Cliftons partner He thanked me his countenance shewed it as well as his words for my kindness He was coming he said to petition the instant he had heard of the dance But still he looked at Frank as if he thought it strange that I should condescend to account to him for my thoughts and promises
Dinner time came and we sat down
to table But the mind is sometimes too busy to attend to the appetites I and Frank ate but little He rose first from table that he might not seem to follow me His delicacy never slumbers I took the first opportunity to retire Frank was presently with me and our dialogue began The struggle of the feelings ordained that I should be the first speaker
I have been thinking very seriously Frank of what you said to me this morning
Would to heaven you could forget it madam
Why so
I was unjust A madman A vain fool An idiot—Pardon this rude vehemence but I cannot forgive myself
for having been so ready to accuse one whom— I cannot speak my feelings—I have deserted myself—I am no longer the creature of reason but the child of passion—My mind is all tumult all incongruity
You wrong yourself The error has been mutual or rather I have been much the most to blame I am very sensible of and indeed very sorry for my mistake—Indeed I am—I perceived you indulging hopes that cannot be realized and—
Cannot madam
Never—I can see you think yourself despised but you do yourself great wrong
My mind is so disturbed by the abrupt and absurd folly with which I
accused you unheard this morning that it is less now in a state to do my cause justice than at any other time—Still I will be a man—Your word madam was—Cannot—
It was
Permit me to ask is it person—
No—certainly not Person would with me be always a distant consideration You Louisa know how very far from exceptionable the person of Frank is if that were any part of the question
You are no flatterer madam and you have thought proper occasionally to express your approbation of my morals and mind
Yet my expressions have never equalled my feelings—Never
Then madam where is the impossibility In what does it consist The world may think meanly of me for the want of what I myself hold in contempt but surely you cannot join in the worlds injustice
I cannot think meanly of you
I have no titles I am what pride calls nobody the son of a man who came pennyless into the service of your family in which to my infinite grief he has grown rich I would rather starve than acquire opulence by the efforts of cunning flattery and avarice and if I blush for any thing relative to family it is for that I am either above or below the wish of being what is insolently called well born
You confound or rather you do not separate two things which are very distinct
that which I think of you and that which the world would think of me were I to encourage hopes which you would have me indulge
Your actions madam shew how much and how properly you disregard the worlds opinion
But I do not disregard the effects which that opinion may have upon the happiness of my father my family myself and my husband if ever I should marry
If truth and justice require it madam even all these ought to be disregarded
Indubitably
Did I know a man upon the face of the earth who had a still deeper sense of your high qualities and virtues than I
have who understood them more intimately would study them emulate them more and profit better by them I have confidence enough in myself to say I would resign you without repining But when I think on the union between mind and mind—the aggregate— I want language madam—
I understand you
When I reflect on the wondrous happiness we might enjoy while mutually exerting ourselves in the general cause of virtue I confess the thought of renouncing so much bliss or rather such a duty to myself and the world is excruciating torture
Your idea of living for the cause of virtue delights me it is in full concord with my own But whether that great
cause would best be promoted by our union or not is a question which we are incapable of determining though I think probabilities are for the negative Facts and observation have given me reason to believe that the too easy gratification of our desires is pernicious to mind and that it acquires vigour and elasticity from opposition
And would you then upon principle madam marry a man whom you must despise
No not despise If indeed I were all I could wish to be I am persuaded I should despise no one I should endeavour to instruct the ignorant and reform the erroneous However I will tell you what sort of a man I should wish to marry First he must be a person
of whom no prejudice no mistake of any kind should induce the world that is the persons nearest and most connected with me in the world to think meanly—Shall I be cited by the thoughtless the simple and the perverse in justification of their own improper conduct—You cannot wish it Frank—Nor is this the most alarming fear—My friends—My relations—My father—To incur a fathers reproach for having dishonoured his family were fearful but to meet to merit to live under his curse—God of heaven forbid
Must we then never dare to counteract mistake Must mind though enlightened by truth submit to be the eternal slave of error—What is there that is thus dreadful madam in the curse of
prejudice Have not the greatest and the wisest of mankind been cursed by ignorance
It is not the curse itself that is terrible but the torture of the persons mind by whom it is uttered—Nor is it the torture of a minute or a day but of years—His child his beloved child on whom his hopes and heart were fixed to whom he looked for all the bliss of filial obedience all the energies of virtue and all the effusions of affection to see himself deserted by her unfeelingly deserted plunged in sorrows unutterable eternally dishonoured the index and the byeword of scandal scoffed at for the fault of her whom his fond and fatherly reveries had painted faultless whispered out of society because
of the shame of her in whom he gloried and I this child
Were the conflict what your imagination has figured it madam your terrors would be just—But I have thought deeply on it and know that your very virtues misguide you It would not be torture nor would it be eternal—On the contrary madam I poor as I am in the esteem of an arrogant world I proudly affirm it would be the less and not the greater evil
You mistake—Indeed Frank you mistake—The fear of poverty the sneers of the world ignominy itself were the pain inflicted but confined to me I would despise But to stretch my father upon the rack and with him every creature that loves me even you
yourself—It must not be—It must not be
I too fatally perceive madam your mind is subjected by these phantoms of fear
No no—not phantoms real existences the palpable beings of reason—Beside what influence have I in the world except over my friends and family And shall I renounce this little influence this only power of doing good in order to gratify my own passions by making myself the outcast of that family and of that world to whom it is my ambition to live an example—My family and the world are prejudiced and unjust I know it But where is the remedy Can we work miracles Will their prejudices vanish at
our bidding—I have already mortally offended the most powerful of my relations Lord FitzAllen by refusing a foolish peer of his recommendation He is my maternal uncle proud prejudiced and unforgiving Previous to this refusal I was the only person in our family whom he condescended to notice He prophesied in the spleen of passion I should soon bring shame on my family and I as boldly retorted I would never dishonour the name of St Ives—I spoke in their own idiom and meant to be so understood—Recollect all this—Be firm be just to yourself and me—Indeed indeed Frank it is not my heart that refuses you it is my understanding it is principle it is a determination not to do that which my
reason cannot justify—Join with me Frank—Resolve—Give me your hand—Let us disdain to set mankind an example which would indeed be a virtuous and a good one were all the conditions understood but which under the appearances it would assume would be criminal in the extreme
My hand and heart madam are everlastingly yours and it is because this heart yearns to set the world an example higher infinitely than that which you propose that thus I plead—This opportunity is my first and last—I read my doom—Bear with me therefore while I declare my sensations and my thoughts—The passion I feel is as unlike what is usually meant by love as day to night grace to deformity or truth to falsehood
It is not your fine form madam supremely beautiful though you are which I love At least I love it only as an excellent part of a divine whole It is your other your better your more heavenly self to which I have dared to aspire I claim relationship to your mind and again declare I think my claims have a right which none of the false distinctions of men can supersede Think then madam again I conjure you think ere you decide—If the union of two people whose pure love founded on an unerring conviction of mutual worth might promise the reality of that heaven of which the world delights to dream whose souls both burning with the same ardour to attain and to diffuse excellence would mingle and act with incessant
energy who having risen superior to the mistakes of mankind would diffeminate the same spirit of truth the same internal peace the same happiness the same virtues which they themselves possess among thousands who would admire animate emulate each other whose wishes efforts and principles would all combine to one great end the general good who being desirous only to dispense blessings could not fail to enjoy if a union like this be not strictly conformable to the laws of eternal truth or if there be any arguments any perils any terrors which ought to annul such a union I confess that the arguments the perils the terrors and eternal truth itself are equally unknown to me
We paused for a moment The beauty force and grandeur of the picture he had drawn staggered me Yet it was but a repetition of what had frequently presented itself to my mind in colours almost as vivid as those with which he painted I had but one answer and replied—
The world—My family—My father—I cannot encounter the malediction of a father—What Behold him in an agony of cursing his child—Imagination shudders and shrinks from the guilty picture with horror—I cannot—I cannot—It must not be—To foresee this misery so clearly as I do and yet to seek it would surely be detestable guilt
Again we paused—He perceived my
terrors were too violent to cede to any efforts of supposed reason His countenance changed the energy of argument disappeared and was succeeded by all the tenderness of passion The decisive moment the moment of trial was come His features softened into that form which never yet failed to melt the heart and he thus continued
To the scorn of vice the scoffs of ignorance the usurpations of the presuming and the contumelies of the proud I have patiently submitted but to find my great and as I thought infallible support wrested from me to perceive that divine essence which I imagined too much a part of myself to do me wrong overlooking me rejecting me dead to those sensations which I thought mutually
pervaded and filled our hearts to hear her whom of all beings on earth I thought myself most akin to disclaim me positively persistingly un—
Unjustly—Was that the word Frank—Surely not unjustly—Oh surely not
And could those heavenly those heartwinning condescensions on which I founded my hopes be all illusory—Could they—Did I dream that your soul held willing intercourse with mine beaming divine intelligence upon me Was it all a vision when I thought I heard you pronounce the ecstatic sentence—You could love me if I would let you
No it was real I revoke nothing that I have said or done Do not
Frank for the love of truth and justice do not think me insensible of your excellence dead to your virtues or blind to mind and merit which I never yet saw equalled—Think not it is pride or base insensibility of your worth Where is the day in which that worth has not increased upon me—Unjust to you—Oh—No no no—My heart bleeds at the thought—No—It is my love of you my love of your virtues your principles and these alone are lovely which has rendered me thus inflexible If any thing could make you dearer to me than you are it must be weakness it must be something which neither you nor I ought to approve All the good or rather all the opportunities of doing good which mortal or immortal being can enjoy
do I wish you Oh that I had prayers potent enough to draw down blessings on you—Love you—Yes—The very idea bursts into passion The tears Louisa were streaming down my cheeks Why should you doubt of all the affection which virtue can bestow Do you not deserve it—Oh yes—Love you in the manner you could wish I must not dare not ought not but as I ought I love you infinitely Ay dear dear Frank as I ought infinitely
Louisa—Blame me if thou wilt—But I kissed him—The chastity of my thoughts defied misconstruction and the purity of the will sanctified the extravagance of the act A daring enthusiasm seized me I beheld his passions struggling
to attain the very pinnacle of excellence I wished to confirm the noble emulation to convince him how different the pure love of mind might be from the meaner love of passion and I kissed him I find my affections my sensibilities peculiarly liable to these strong sallies Perhaps all minds of a certain texture are subject to such rapid and almost resistless emotions and whether they ought to be encouraged or counteracted I have not yet discovered But the circumstance unexpected and strange as it was suffered no wrong interpretation in the dignified soul of Frank With all the ardour of affection but chastened by every token of delicacy he clasped me in his arms returned
my kiss then sunk down on one knee and exclaimed—Now let me die—
After a moments pause I answered—No Frank Live Live to be a blessing to the world and an honour to the human race
I took a turn to the window and after having calmed the too much of feeling which I had suffered to grow upon me I continued the conversation
I hope Frank we now understand each other and that as this is the first so it will be the last contention of the passions in which we shall indulge ourselves
Madam though I still think nay feel a certainty of conviction that you act from mistaken principles yet you support what
you are persuaded is truth with such high such selfdenying virtue that not to applaud not to imitate you would be contemptible You have and ought to have a will of your own You practise what you believe to be the severest precepts of duty with more than human fortitude You resolve in this particular not to offend the prejudices of your family and the world I submit To indulge sensibility but a little were to be heartbroken But no personal grief can authorise me in deserting the post I am placed in nor palliate the crime of neglecting its duties To the end of time I shall persist in thinking you mine by right but I will never trouble you more with an assertion of that right—Never—Unless some new and unexpected claim
should spring up of which I see no probability
He bowed and was retiring
Stay Frank I have something more to say to you—I have a requisition to make which after what has passed would to common minds appear unfeeling and almost capricious cruelty but I have no fear that yours should be liable to this mistake Recollect but who and what you are remember what are the best purposes of existence the noblest efforts of mind and then refuse me if you can—I have formed a project and call upon you for aid—Cannot you guess
Mr Clifton madam—
Yes
I fear it is a dangerous one and whether my fears originate in selfishness
or in penetration they must be spoken Yes madam I must warn you that the passions of Mr Clifton are in my opinion much more alarming than the resentment of your father
But they are alarming only to myself And ought danger to deter me
Not if the good you design be practicable
And what is impracticable where the will is resolved
Perhaps nothing—But the effort must be great must be uncommon
Has he not a mind worthy of such an effort Would not his powers highly honour truth and virtue
They would
Will not you give me your assistance
I would madam most willingly
would he but permit me But I am his antipathy a something noxious an evil augury
You have been particular in your attentions to me
And must those attentions cease madam
They must be moderated they must be cool dispassionate and then they will not alarm—I cannot possibly be deceived in supposing it a duty an indispensable duty to restore the mind of Clifton to its true station If I fail the fault must be my own I am but young yet many men have addressed me with the commonplace language of admiration love and I know not what or rather they knew not what and except yourself Frank I have not met with one
from whom half so much might be hoped as from Clifton He is the brother of my bosom friend Surely Frank it is a worthy task—Join with me—There is but one thing I fear Clifton is haughty and intemperate Are you a duellist Frank
No madam
Then you would not fight a duel
Never madam No provocation not the brand of cowardice itself shall ever induce me to be guilty of such a crime
Frank—Oh excellent noble youth
Here Louisa our conversation abruptly ended The company had risen from table and we heard them in the corridor I requested him to retire and he instantly obeyed
Oh Louisa with what sensations did he leave my mind glowing—His conviction equals certainty that I act from mistaken principles—To the end of time he shall persist in thinking me his by right—Can the power of language afford words more strong more positive more pointed—How unjust have I been to my cause—For surely I cannot be in an error—Tis afflicting tis painful nay it is almost terrifying to remember—Persist to the end of time—Why did I not think more deeply—I had a dark kind of dread that I should fail—It cannot be the fault of my cause—Wrong him—Guilty of injustice to him—Surely surely I hope not—What Become an example to the feeble and the foolish for having indulged
my passions and neglected my duties—I—His mind had formed a favourite plan and could I expect it should be instantly relinquished—I cannot conceive torment equal to the idea of doing him wrong—Him—Again and again I hope not I hope not I hope not
Then the kiss Louisa Did I or did I not do right in shewing him how truly I admire and love his virtues Was I or was I not guilty of any crime when in the very acme of the passions I so totally disregarded the customs of the world Or rather for that is the true question could it produce any other effect than that which I intended I am persuaded it could not Nor blame me who will do I repent And yet my friend if you should think it wrong I confess I should
then feel a pang which I should be glad not to deserve But be sincere Though I need not warn you No false pity can or ought to induce you to desert the cause of truth
Adieu—My mind is not so much at its ease as I hoped from this conversation but at all times and in all tempers believe me to be ever and ever
Your own dear A W ST IVES
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
Chateau de Villebrun
ALL is over—My hopes are at an end—I am awakened from a dream in which pain and pleasure were mingled to such excess as to render its continuance impossible
Nor is this all This trial severe as it was did not suffice To the destruction
of hope has been added the assault of insolence accompanied with a portion of obloquy which heart scarcely can sustain—Oh this Clifton—But—Patience
Yet let me do her justice Mistaken though I am sure she is the motives of her conduct are so pure that even mistake itself is lovely in her and assumes all the energy all the dignity of virtue Oh what a soul is hers Her own passions the passions of others when she acts and speaks are all in subjection to principle Yes Oliver of one thing at least she has convinced me she has taught me or rather made me feel how poor a thing it is to be the slave of desire
Not that I do not still adore her—Ay more than ever adore But from
henceforth my adoration shall be worthy of herself and not degrading to me From her I have learned what true love is and the lesson is engraven on my heart She can consider personal gratification with apathy yet burn with a martyrs zeal for the promotion of universal good
And shall I not rise equal to the bright example which she has set me Shall I admire yet not imitate
Did she despise me Did she reject me for my own sake—No—All the affection which mind can feel for mind she has avowed for me And shall I grieve because another may be more happy—And why more—In what—Is not the union of souls the first the most permanent of all alliances That
union is mine No power can shake it She openly acknowledges it and has done daily hourly in every word in every action Whither then would my wishes wander
Oliver I am a man and subject to the shakes and agues of his fragile nature—Yet it is a poor a wretched plea a foolish and a false plea Man is weak because he is willing to be weak He crouches to the whip and like a coward pities while he lashes himself His wilful phrensy he calls irresistible and weeps for the torments which he himself inflicts
But once again this Clifton—Read and tell me how I ought to act—I have received a blow from him Oliver—Yes
have tamely submitted to receive a blow—
What intolerable prejudices are these Why does my heart rebel so sternly at what virtue so positively approves
I had just left her had that instant been rejected by her for his sake had been summoned to aid her in weeding out error from his mind She shewed me it was a noble task and communicated to me her own divine ardour Yes Oliver I came from her with a warmed and animated heart participating all her zeal The most rigid the most painful of all abstinence was demanded from me but should I shrink from a duty because I pity or because I love myself No Such pusillanimity
were death to virtue I left her while my thoughts glowed with the ardour of emulating her heroism and burned to do him all the good which she had projected
He was at the end of the corridor and saw me quit her apartment His hot spirit caught the alarm instantaneously and blazed in his countenance He accosted me—
So sir You are very familiar with that lady What right have you to intrude into her apartments
When she herself desires me sir I have a right
She desire you Tis false
Sir
Tis false sir
False
Yes sir And falsehood deserves to be chastised
Chastised It is in vain Oliver to endeavour to conceal the truth from myself my folly incurred its own punishment—I repeated Chastised I was lunatic enough to walk up to him with a ridiculous and despicable air of defiance He reechoed my words and instantly in contempt struck me on the cheek with the back of his hand
Yes sir chastised
His rashness restored me to some sense of the farcical heroism which I had been aping I hurried from him without another word
Oliver I can conceive nothing more
painful than this wresting this tearing of passion from its purpose
I walked a few minutes to calm my thoughts and wrote him the following note
SIR
I FEEL at present the humility of my situation but not from your blow for that has brought me to myself not humbled me No man can be degraded by another it must be his own act and you have degraded yourself not me My error is in having for a moment yielded to the impulse of passion If you think I fear you continue to think so till I can shew my forbearance is from a better motive Cowardice might make me kill you
but true courage will teach me calmly to hear the world call me coward rather than commit an act so wicked so abhorred as that of taking or of throwing away life I wished to seek your friendship and even now I will not shun you Make the world imagine me a coward imagine me one yourself if you can I will live under the supposed obloquy and leave the tenor of my life to shew whether living be the act of fear or of reason I pardon you sir and leave you to pardon yourself
F HENLEY
My forbearance and this letter mitigated my sense of pain Yet I am very ill satisfied with myself Am I so easily
to be moved Tis true the scene I had just quitted was fermenting as it were in my veins and shaking my whole system
What is worse I am child enough to be tormented in my own despite by the recollection of having received a blow And why In many countries and even in my own among the class in which I was born the stigma is none or trifling—Stigma Absurd—Cowardice—Murder—If vanity were ever becoming I have perhaps more reason to be vain considering the danger to which I had exposed myself of this than of any act of my life
Well well Oliver—I hope these agitations are over and that from this time thou wilt begin to think better of me
I communicate my whole thoughts to thee If the experiments made upon my mind can be of any use to thine my letters will then answer the best of the purposes for which they are written
F HENLEY
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
Chateau de Villebrun
YOUR last Fairfax pleased me You say truly and I like your remark
Such fellows ought not to claim a moments attention from me I should brush them away like flies from my forehead when they presume to tease or settle themselves upon me
I have taken
your advice and flyflapped the wasp that was more willing than able to sting
I have lately grown dissatisfied with myself I know not how or why I suspect this youth in part has made me so with his visionary morality I hate such sermonizing Who has a right to control me Whose slave am I I was born to rule not to be ruled My appetites are keen my desires vast and I would enjoy Why else am I here Delay to me is insufferable suspense distracts me and the possibility that another should be preferred to myself drives me mad I too heartily despise the tame creatures that crawl upon the earth to suffer opposition from them Who would be braved by bats and beetles buzzing in his ears
I never before saw a woman whom any temptation could have induced me to marry and now I have found one I am troubled with doubts infested with fears and subjected to the intolerable penance of procrastination Impeded in my course and by what Why I am told to scrutinize myself and to discover whether I am quite as perfect as it is necessary I should be Tis unjust Tis unkind I did not doubt of her perfections and both love and pride equally jealous of their honour demand that mine should have been taken for granted
The time has been when this would have been revenged But I seem to be half subdued My fierce spirit before so untameable declines contending with
her Not but I frequently feel it struggling with suffocation kindling and again ready to burst into a more furious blaze
Yet let me do her justice Mild gentle and affectionate she conquers my impetuosity with prayers and soothing and with kindness irresistible Still she conquers
Then she suffers these animals to torment me I am angry to think that in so short a space I should have so entirely lost all power over myself
But where is the mortal that can look and not love Were I myself not an actor in the play how should I enjoy the perplexity of these French amoureux There are I know not how many of them each more busy than the other
Tis laughable to see with what industry they labour to make love according to her liking for they find that their own trifling manner is inefficient and can never succeed with her One of them that said crazy Provençal Count is very earnest indeed in his endeavours but she keeps him in due awe And it is well perhaps for him that she does or I would Still however he is damned troublesome and impertinent and I could wish she were more peremptory Yet it is unjust to blame her for the animal is so full of antics that it is impossible to be angry
After all I am far from satisfied respecting myself and this youth whom I condescended to chastise It was beneath me It gave him a sort of right to demand satisfaction but he affects forbearance
because as he pretends he despises duelling And I hear he has actually given proofs of the most undaunted courage He wrote a short note of only three or four sentences on the subject after I had struck him which produced a very uncommon effect upon me and made me half repent and accuse myself of haughtiness rashness and insult
But these things torture me I am out of patience with them What right has any pedant because he thinks proper to vex and entangle his own brain with doubts to force his gloomy dogmas upon me Let those who love sackcloth wear it Must I be made miserable because an overcurious booby bewilders himself in inquiry and galls his conscience till like the wrung withers
of a battered posthorse it shrinks and shivers at the touch of a flys foot What shall I not enjoy the free air the glorious sun the flowers the fruits the viands the whole stores of nature Who shall impede who shall dare disturb the banquet Were it even a dream the meddling fool that waked me should dearly repent his rashness—Let speculative blockheads brew metaphysical nectar make a hash of axioms problems corollaries and demonstrations and feed on ideas and fatten Be theirs the feast of reason and the flow of soul But let me banquet with old Homers jolly gods and heroes revel with the Mahometan houris or gain admission into the savoury sanctorum of the gormandizing
priesthood snuff the fumes from their altars and gorge on the fat of lambs Let cynic Catos truss up each his slovenly toga rail at Heliogabalus and fast but let me receive his card with—
Sir your company is requested to dine and sup
I cannot forget this gardeners son I am sometimes angry that I should for a single instant trouble myself with a fellow so much beneath me and at others equally angry for not shewing him the respect which he claims There are moments in which I have even feared him as a rival for when she speaks to him which she is very ready to do the usual mildness and benevolence of her voice and features are evidently increased
She must she shall be more circumspect Indeed I have made her so within these few days
Prithee forgive all this My mind is not at ease but I know not why I should infect you with its malady Write relate something pleasant tell me what has happened to you last and relieve the dissatisfaction — I feel by your unaffected flow of gaiety Adieu
C CLIFTON
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Chateau de Villebrun
I CANNOT sufficiently applaud the resolute propriety of Frank since our last conversation Indeed Louisa his fortitude is admirable He does not indulge selfcompassion by brooding over his own loss Nor does he like other mistaken people whose affections have
met disappointment suppose himself into sufferings which swell into existence in proportion as they are imagined to be real His evident determination is not to permit any selfish motive to detach him from the great purposes of life but cheerfully to submit to what is inevitable without thinking it an evil
In the mean time I have been indulging a hope which at moments has appeared almost a certainty that Clifton by our mutual efforts shall acquire all this true ardour which is so lovely in Frank How forry am I to observe that the haughtiness of Clifton and the coldness of Frank seem to be increasing To what can this be attributed Their behaviour is so peculiar that I almost
dread something has happened with which I am unacquainted
But perhaps it is the present temper of my mind the effect of sensations too irritable doubts too tremulous and fears too easily excited I cannot forget the conversation it haunts me and did not Frank set me the example of fortitude I have sometimes doubted of my own perseverance
Oh how mean is this in me Is not the task I have proposed to myself a worthy and a high one Am I not convinced it is an inevitable duty And shall he even under a contrary conviction outstrip me in the career—Generous and excellent youth I will imitate thy most eminent virtues
The Count de Beaunoir still continues to be particular in what he calls his adoration of me but his tone and style are too romantic to authorize me in any serious remonstrance Clifton is not pleased and the Count and he have fallen into a habit of rallying each other and vaunting of what lovers dare do to prove their affection Their irony took so serious a turn yesterday that Clifton proposed they should load their pistols and both holding by the corner of a handkerchief fire at each other Considering the temper in which they were and the constitutional extravagance of the Count the proposal was terrifying but I had the presence of mind to give it
an air of ridicule by saying—You do not understand the true point of gallantry gentlemen You should go to Japan where one nobleblooded person draws his sabre and dispatches himself to prove he is acquainted with the high punctilio and very essence of honour while another enraged that he should be in waiting and have a dish to carry up to the emperors table requests he would condescend to live till he can come down again that he may shew he knows what honour is as well as his disingenuous enemy who had taken such an unfair advantage
The Count laughed and Clifton I should hope was not displeased that it was impossible the conversation should again
assume the same desperate and absurd tone
I took an opportunity to ask him privately how he could indulge such intemperate passions but I was obliged to soften my admonition by all possible mildness I know not whether I did right but I even took his hand pressed it between mine and requested of him with an ardour which I think must sink deeply in his mind to do justice to himself to exert those powers of thought which he certainly possessed and to restrain passions which if not restrained must deter me or any woman worthy of him from a union that would be so dangerous
The impression would have been stronger but that unfortunately his quick sensations took a different turn Feeling
me clasp his hand he dropped on his knee and with an ecstasy which he seemed unable to resist kissed both mine talked something of bliss unutterable and recollecting the conclusion of my sentence added that the very thought of losing me was madness We were interrupted and I began to fear lest my true motive should have been misunderstood
Oh Louisa what a world is this Into what false habits has it fallen Can hypocrisy be virtue Can a desire to call forth all the best affections of the heart be misconstrued into something too degrading for expression
I know not but I begin to fear that no permanent good can be effected at present without peril If so shall I
listen only to my fears shrink into self and shun that which duty bids me encounter No Though the prejudices of mankind were to overwhelm me with sorrows for seeking to do good I will still go on I will persevere will accomplish or die
Yet I know not why I am in this mood But so I am and Louisa will forgive me I talk of sufferings What have I suffered What can those who mature in reason are superior to prejudice suffer
But who are they My prejudices hourly rise up in arms against me Every day am I obliged to combat what the day before I thought I had destroyed Could we at the same moment that we correct our own mistakes correct those
of the whole world the work were done at once But we have to struggle and to struggle and having today shaken off the burs that hung about us tomorrow we give a glance and perceive them sticking as closely and as thick as ever
I wish to question Frank concerning these alarms but he seems purposely to avoid giving me an opportunity Perhaps however I am mistaken and I hope I am The restless fancy is frequently too full of doubts and fears Oh how beautiful is open artless undisguised truth Yet how continually are dissimulation and concealment recommended as virtues Whatever mistakes public or private they may think they have discovered and however beneficial it might be to correct them men must not pubsish
their thoughts for that would be to libel to defame to speak or to write scandal
When will the world learn that the unlimited utterance of all thoughts would be virtuous How many halfdiscovered halfacknowledged truths would then be promulgated and how immediately would mistake of every kind meet its proper antidote How affectionately and unitedly would men soon be brought to join not in punishing nor even in reproving but in reforming falsehood Aided and encouraged by your dear and worthy mother we have often discoursed on these things Louisa and the common accidents of life as well as those peculiar to myself
render such conversations sweet to recollection
I must conclude for though we write best when thoughts flow the most freely yet at present I find myself more inclined to think than to write
Affectionately and ever A W ST IVES
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Chateau de Villebrun
I KNOW not Louisa how to begin I have an accident to relate which has alarmed me so much that I am half afraid it should equally alarm my friend Yet the danger is over and her sensations cannot equal ours She can but imagine what they were But it is so incredible
so mad so dreadful Clifton is strangely rash
He had been for some days dissatisfied restless and disturbed I knew not why except that I had desired time for mutual consideration before I would permit him to speak to Sir Arthur He has half terrified me from ever permitting him to speak—But then he has more than repaired all the wrong he had done There is something truly magnanimous in his temper but it has taken a very erroneous bent The chief subject of my last was the distance which I observed between him and Frank Henley Little did I know the reason But I will not anticipate only remember be not too much alarmed
Frank was but one of the actors
though the true and indeed sole hero of the scene I am going to relate Indeed he is a wonderful I had almost said a divine youth It took birth from the Count de Beaunoir
In my last I mentioned the strange defiance of the pistols and the handkerchief and would you think Louisa a conversation so frantic could be renewed It is true it shewed itself under a new though scarcely a less horrible aspect
We were yesterday walking in the park in which there is a remarkable lake small but romantic I before spoke I believe of our rowing on it in boats We were walking beside it on a steep rock which continues for a considerable
length of way to form one of its banks The Count and Clifton were before I Frank Henley and a party of ladies and gentlemen were following at a little distance but not near enough to hear the conversation that was passing between your brother and the Count
It seems the latter had first begun once again to talk of times of knight errantry and of the feats which the preux chevaliers had performed for their ladies The headlong Clifton utterly despising the pretended admiration of what he was persuaded the Count durst in no manner imitate after some sarcastic expressions of his contempt madly but seriously asked the Count if he durst jump off the rock into the lake to prove his own courage
Shew your soul said he if you have any Jump you first said the Count—
Imagine Louisa if you can the shock I received when not knowing what had passed but in an apparent fit of frenzy I saw him desperately rush to the side of the rock and dash himself headlong down into the water It was at an angle and we had a full view of him falling
Every soul I believe shrieked except myself and perhaps Frank Henley Never had I so much need of the fortitude to which I have endeavoured to habituate my mind
The gentlemen all ran to the side of the rock—They saw Clifton after rising to the surface sink He had jumped
from a place where the shelving of the rock under water by projecting had stunned him as he fell
Frank perceived the danger he threw off his hat and coat and ran to another part where the height was still more dreadful Indeed Louisa it excites horror to look at the place But he seems to be superior to fear He plunged down what might well be called an abyss and after rising for a few seconds to breathe dived again in search of poor Clifton
He was twice obliged to rise and take breath The third time he found him rose with him turned him upon his own back and swam with him a very considerable distance before he could find a place shallow enough to land
To all appearance Clifton was lifeless But the excellent most excellent when you shall hear all the heroic Frank immediately applied himself to the remainder of his office He stayed not a moment to rest but lifted him a seeming corpse from the earth threw him once more on his back and ran faster than any of us to the chateau carried him up stairs undressed him himself put him between the blankets and gave every necessary order with as much presence of mind as if there had been neither accident nor danger Wet as he was he lost not a thought upon himself
Never shall I forget the indefatigable assiduity with which he laboured to restore your brother to life the anxiety which he struggled to conceal the variety
of means he employed the ingenuity of his conjectures and the humanity of every motion
Two hours were I and he and all of us held in this dreadful suspense At last he was successful and the relief I felt the load that seemed removed from my heart it is impossible to describe
When your brother was perfectly come to himself Frank suffered him to be bled For it had been proposed before but Frank with a determination that could not be withstood refused to admit of it though he had been intreated and at last openly and loudly blamed by the surgeon and those who believed in him for his pertinacity But Frank was not to be shaken even by the very serious fear of future accusation He followed as
he tells me the opinion of John Hunter and well might he think it of more worth than that of the person who pretended to advise But it requires no common degree of resolution to persist in this manner in the right and wholly to despise calumny and its consequences
If you think Louisa that after this I can add nothing in praise of Frank you are greatly mistaken for what is to come raises his character almost to an enviable dignity
Could you imagine that this very Frank Henley this undaunted determined highsouled Frank who had flung himself down the horrid precipice after your brother who had swum with him run with him risked being supposed in some sort his murderer and at last restored
him to life had the very day before received from the hand of this same brother—a blow—If Louisa there be one being upon earth capable of attaining virtues more than human it is surely Frank Henley
Much praise however as well as blame is justly due to Clifton I never saw a heart more painfully wrung by the sense of an injury committed and of a good so unexampled received as his has been It was he who told of his own behaviour His total want of power to make retribution is the theme by which he is pained and oppressed
Frank uniform in generosity disclaims any superiority and affirms Clifton would have done the same had he been in the same danger I think I
would answered Clifton in a tone that shewed he felt what he spoke but I know myself too well to suppose I should have so unremittingly persevered like you in the performance of an office of humanity which seemed hopeless
The distinction was just disinterested and worthy the discernment of a mind like that of your brother
Clifton says that though he cannot think like Frank We hope to make him Louisa yet he cannot but admire the magnanimity with which he acts up to his principles and proves his sincerity
Oh my friend You can conceive all the terrors of the scene So fine a youth so accomplished so brave the brother of my Louisa brought to Paris
to meet an untimely death I the cause of his coming thither I the innocent instigator of this last rash act The eyes of all upon me The horror of suspense—It was indeed a trial
Yet who knows what accidents may occur in life Who can sufficiently cherish fortitude and by anticipating defy misfortune Violently as my feelings were assaulted there yet may be there are shocks more violent scenes more dreadful in the world Nor is it impossible but that such may be my lot And if they were I hope I still should bear up against them all
It is true I may not always have a Frank Henley to cherish and inspire hope His constant theme was—He is not dead And I once heard him
murmuring to himself with a kind of prophetic energy—He shall not die—It was this shall not by which he was saved for with any other creature upon earth I am persuaded he had been gone for ever Oh this noble perseverance It is indeed a godlike virtue
The Count is less in spirits less extravagant since this accident It seems to hang upon his mind as if he had been outbraved His anxiety as might well be expected from such a temper was excessive while Clifton was in danger but he seems to repent now that he did not follow the mad example Parbleu Madame je suis Provençal on dit que jai la tête un peu chaude mais Messieurs les Anglois vont diablement vite
aux épreuves Mes compatriotes même ne sont pas si fous—Je ne suis pas content de moi—Jaurais du faire le saut—Jaurais sauvé la vie à mon rival—Voilà une belle occasion manquée et beaucoup de gloire à jamais perdue pour moi
My mind at present is not entirely tranquil The recollection of a temper so rash as Cliftons preys upon me Yet where there are qualities so high and powers so uncommon shall I defpair
Shall I shrink from an act of duty It is a task I have prescribed to myself Shall I witness the fortitude of Frank and be myself so easily discomfited No Louisa Clifton shall be ours—Shall be—Shall be the brother of Louisa the friend of Frank and the better part of Anna Yes I too will be determined I like Frank will say—He is not dead He shall not die
A W ST IVES
THE HONOURABLE MRS CLIFTON TO FRANK HENLEY
RoseBank
SIR
IF the praises prayers and thanks of a woman whom disease has robbed of more than half her faculties could be of any value if the overflowing heart of a mother could but speak its throbs if admiration of gifts so astonishing and virtues
so divine could be worthy your acceptance or could reward you for all the good you have done us I would endeavour to discharge the unexampled and unmerited obligation
But no sir you are superior to these I write not for your sake but for my own that I may endeavour to relieve myself of sensations that oppress me I feel it incumbent on me to write yet what can I say I have no words I despair of any opportunity of retribution I am aged infirm and feeble I am going down to the grave but still I have life enough to revive and feel a new existence at the recital of your virtues
Forgive this short effusion from the
exuberant heart of a mother who wishes but is wholly unable to say how much she admires you
M CLIFTON
LOUISA CLIFTON TO FRANK HENLEY
RoseBank
SIR
I LIKE my dear mamma am impelled to endeavour to return thanks for benefits at the recollection of which the heart sinks and all thanks become inadequate and vain Yet suffer a sisters thanks for a brother spared pardoned
and restored to life Restored at the hazard of your own and after a mortal affront received Restored by the energies of fortitude sagacity and affection
Indeed sir I cannot tell you what I feel It is utterly impossible Imagine me your friend your sister Command my life it is yours Yours not so much because the youth you have saved happened to be my brother as for the true esteem I have for qualities so exalted This is not the first time you have excited my admiration and permit me to add my love Your heart is too noble to misunderstand me I love virtue in man or woman and if that be sin may I be ever sinful
I would wish you the joys of heaven but my wishes are vain you have them
already nor can a mind like yours be robbed of them by all the powers of man or accident
L CLIFTON
LOUISA CLIFTON TO ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES
RoseBank
YOUR three last letters my dear Anna have affected me in a very uncommon manner The pure passion the noble resignation and the fortitude of Frank Henley are unparalleled Not to admire not to esteem not to love such virtues is imposible His unshaken
patience his generosity his forgiveness his courage his perseverance are inimitable proofs of his superiority Who can forbear wishing him success Ought he not to command it to say it is mine truth and justice dare not deny it to me
Indeed Anna my mind is strangely in doubt To be guilty of injustice to such worth is surely no common guilt And yet my brother—Headlong lunatic Whose intemperance is every moment hurrying him into extremes—I grant my friend his mind is worthy of being retrieved and it is a generous a noble enterprize Nay I own I sometimes persuade myself it cannot fail when Anna St Ives and Frank Henley from motives so pure and with so much
determination engage in the cause But at others I see peril at every step I find my heart reproaching me for not adjuring my friend to desist for not exciting her to bestow her hand on the man who of all others can most justly claim it as his right
That I desire to see my brother all that emulation and wisdom could make him the friend and husband of my Anna the rival of her virtues and the bosom intimate of him whom she is willing to forego for this brothers sake that I desire this ardently vehemently is most true If the end be attainable it is a noble enterprize But the difficulties What are they Have they been well examined—I with my Anna say mind can do all things with mind truth is irresistible
and must finally conquer But it has many modes of conquering and some of them are tragical and dreadful
To see my Anna married to strife wasting her fine powers to reform habits which though they may be checked may perhaps be too deep ever to be eradicated to see all her exquisite sensibilities hourly preyed upon by inefficient attempts to do good for which instead of praise and love she might meet neglect reproach or perhaps stern insult—Oh It is a painful thought She would not pine she would not weakly sink into dejection and desert her duties in pity to her own misfortunes—No—But still it is an unhappy nay it is an abhorred state
I am bewildered One train of reasoning
overturns another and I know not what to advise There are times in which these consequences appear most probable and there are others in which I say no it is impossible Brutality itself could not be so senseless so destructive of its own felicity Anna St Ives would win a savage heart And my brother evidently has quick and delicate sensations capable of great good But then are they not capable of great harm Yes but are they would they be capable of harm with her Would not she command them regulate them harmonize them Again and again I know not
One thing however let me add Let me conjure the friend of my bosom not to suffer herself to be swayed by the remembrance
of that friendship Nay if she do not feel a certainty of success let me intreat let me admonish her to desist before it be too late and before further encouragement shall seem to authorize the presuming Clifton for presuming I am convinced he will be to found claims upon her kindness
Oh that he were indeed worthy of her Would that he could but rise to something like that enviable dignity And can he not—Indeed I would not plead against him but neither would I be instrumental in rendering my friend who is surely born a blessing to the earth miserable
I am angry with myself for my own indecision but in vain I have no remedy I sometimes conclude this indecision
ought to act as a warning and for that reason I have painted my feelings as they are If yours should resemble them I firmly and loudly say—Anna desist If not I then have no advice to give For this I blame myself but ineffectually
Be assured however that under all circumstances of future life be they adverse or prosperous my best wishes will be with you and my heart and soul ever yours
L CLIFTON
P S
My mamma and I have mutually written to Frank Henley you may easily imagine in what tone and style But I could wish my brother to see our letters We have both thought it best
to forbear writing to him his temper being wayward and tetchy We would much rather he should be obliged to feel indirectly what our opinions and sensations are than learn them from any formal address which he is so liable to misconstrue It is most probable that Frank will not mention these letters But if you shew him this and being of my opinion will join in the request I have no doubt he will then comply There is one sentence in my letter which makes me likewise wish that Clifton should know I have requested Frank would permit him to see what I have written otherwise that sentence might very probably by him be misinterpreted When you read the letter you will instantly know which I mean the word
love makes it conspicuous and you will then perceive my reason To raise the mind which is habituated to the suspicious practices of the world above those practices and to make it feel that the pure heart defies the pusillanimous imputation of want of delicacy is a difficult task But let us my Anna continue to act and speak all that our thoughts approve void of the fear of accusation
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Paris Hotel de lUniversité
WE are returned to Paris The Marquis and his bride have taken leave of their country pleasures and are gone to Fontainebleau to be presented at court
The strange incident of Clifton excited much conversation in which my name
and his were frequently joined The Count de Beaunoir became less particular in his behaviour to me in consequence of the reserve which I thought it right to assume I find however that he told Sir Arthur after running over a great number of enthusiastic epithets in his wild way all in my praise that he perceived at present I preferred another and that he had too high a sense of honour to put any restraint on a ladys inclinations But if my mind should change and his person fortune sword and life could give me pleasure they should eternally be at my command He likewise means in a few days to follow the court to Fontainebleau as he said and he again repeated he had lost a fine opportunity of convincing
me how he adored me and that he was diablement fâché
Clifton has entirely altered his behaviour to Frank he now treats him with unaffected freedom and respect But his impatience relative to me has not abated Tomorrow we are to have some conversation after which I imagine he wishes to make proposals to Sir Arthur
Would you think Louisa that I sometimes suffer myself to be surprised into fears and that I then find myself ready to retract or at least questioning whether I ought to proceed
There is something fatally erroneous in the impatient propensities of the human mind How seldom does it stay so fully to examine a question as to leave no remaining doubt and to act on a
preconcerted and consistent plan Yet it never acts with safety or with satisfaction except when it has or imagines it has made this examination If our motives be few slow and feeble we then are heavy dull and stupid if they be quick numerous and strong we are too apt implicitly to obey first impulses and to hurry headlong into folly and extravagance Yet these last only can give energy and having them wisdom will consist in being able to curb them so as to give full time for consideration
The conscious want of this in myself is what I blame How often am I surprised by unexpected circumstances which I ought to have foreseen and against which I ought to have provided If I have any doubts of myself if I am
not certain of producing those effects on the mind of Clifton which I know I ought to be able to produce it becomes me to recede Or rather it becomes me to apply myself with the resolution of which I am so ready to vaunt to attain that which is attainable to discover the true means the clue to his mind and to persevere
I have sometimes suspected myself of being influenced by his fine form and the charms of his wit and gaiety At others I have even doubted whether I were not more actuated by an affection for my Louisa than by a sense of incumbent duty But consider the subject how I will that there is a duty and that I am called upon to fulfil it is an unerring decision
There must be no concealment I must explain my whole chain of reasonings to him for nothing appears more indubitable to me than that duplicity never can conduce to good The only fear is that I should be deficient in my detail and present my plan so as to give it a false appearance Truth partially told becomes falsehood and it was a kind of blind consciousness of this which first induced men to countenance dissimulation They felt their inability to do justice to truth and therefore concluded hypocrisy was a virtue and strange to tell truth itself sometimes a vice It was a lamentable mistake It is partial truth or in other words falsehood which is the vice
Clifton has from the beginning been a
great favourite with Sir Arthur He contradicts none of my fathers prejudices he admires grounds and parks beautifully laid out has a taste for architecture points out the defects and excellencies of the buildings of France with much discrimination has a great respect like Sir Arthur for family and prides himself in being the son of an honourable mother recounts in a pleasant and lively manner the anecdotes he has heard and relates his own adventures so as to render them amusing There is therefore no fear of opposition from Sir Arthur
He has another advantage with the family My uncle Lord FitzAllen is at present in Paris on his return from Switzerland and Clifton has been introduced
to him by his kinsman Lord Evelyn who is making a short excursion to the south of France The near relationship of your brother to this noble lord has given him great consequence with my uncle who has once more condescended to restore me to favour Could I or did it become me entirely to conceal those feelings which his arrogance inspires I should stand much higher in his esteem As it is he acts more from the love of his rank and family that is of himself than of me and has accordingly signified his mandatory approbation to Sir Arthur As nothing however in the way of family advantage is to be expected from him he having several children and a prodigious quantity of dignity to maintain his behest is not
altogether so omnipotent as it might otherwise be
My brother agreeably to his grandfathers will has taken possession of the Edgemoor estate which is eight hundred a year This I imagine will oblige Sir Arthur in despite of his predilection to retrench some of his improving expences He mentioned the circumstance to me and I thought that a good opportunity once more to attack his ruling passion Our conversation soon became animated I boldly descanted on the use and abuse of riches on the claims of honest distress and on the turpitude of seeking selfgratifications and neglecting to promote the great ends for which men ought to live the spreading
of truth the rewarding of genius and the propagation of mind
But it was to little purpose Sir Arthur did not understand me and I was more angry at myself than at him as well I might be for wanting the power to render myself intelligible He as usual was amazed to hear he had not a right to do what he pleased with his own and to be told it was not his own Nor was he sparing in pettish reproof to the selfsufficient young lady who thought proper to dispute the propriety and wisdom of his projects
The question that continually occurs to me is when shall those beings who justly claim superiority of understanding and thence a right to direct the world
find some simple and easy mode of convincing the mistaken and by conviction of eradicating error
Adieu Blessings be with you I shall most probably write by the next post for I wish you to be as perfectly acquainted as possible with every thing that passes that I may profit by the advice of a friend so dear so true and so discerning
A W ST IVES
P S
Your last letter is this moment come to hand and has strongly revived trains of ideas that of late have repeatedly passed through my own mind It confirms me in the resolution of being very sincere with your brother But unless my sincerity should so far offend
him as to induce him voluntarily to recede it likewise shews me it is my duty to persist At least such is the result of all the arguments I hold with myself whenever the subject presents itself to me either through the medium of my own imagination or pictured by others I will write soon I approve the reasoning in your postscript will shew it to Frank and will ask him to let me and Clifton see the letters who shall likewise know it is by your desire
SIR ARTHUR ST IVES TO ABIMELECH HENLEY
Paris Hotel de lUniversité
I HAVE received yours of the 30th ult honest Aby and it gave me great pleasure to hear you had made so much dispatch WenbourneHill is the garden of Eden The more I see the more I am convinced What is there here to
be compared to my temples and my groves and my glades Here a mount and a shrubbery There a dell concealed by brambles On your right a statue On your left an obelisk and a sundial The obelisk is fixed yet the dial shews that time is ever flying Did you ever think of that before Aby
Apropos of this dial Sir Alexander I remember said it was useless half the day because it was shaded from the sun to the west and the north by the old grove His advice was that the grove should be grubbed up but it certainly would be much easier to remove the sun dial obelisk and all
I am so delighted with the recollection of these things Abimelech that I had half forgotten the reason of my writing
to you The subject is disagreeable enough and I should not be sorry if I were never to remember it more
I very much fear we must stop our improvements My son has claimed and entered upon the Edgemoor estate I thought myself sure that he would remain satisfied as he was till my death What could be more reasonable I argued with him to the very utmost but to no purpose He is in great haste to set up for himself and I dont know whether he would not eject me out of WenbourneHill if he had the power In vain did I tell him that his pay in the guards added to the three hundred ayear which I had before allowed him was more than any young man knew how properly to spend He has only himself
to think of and he very positively declares he never means to have a family for he will never marry I believe he is quite serious in his declaration and if so what does he want with an estate of eight hundred ayear He ought to consider that and to remember that a provision must be made for his sister But no he considers only himself
Indeed I hear but an indifferent account of him he is a fashionable gentleman and would rather squander his money at the gamingtable than suffer it to remain in the family He has been a wild youth I have sometimes wondered where he got all the money which I am told he has spent Not from me I am sure And though I have often heard of his deep play I do not remember
to have ever heard of his winning But he follows his own course My arguments that I had the family dignity to support his sister to marry and mortgages to pay off were all in vain
He was equally deaf when I pleaded the improvements that I was making all for his sake For you know Aby he is to have them when I am gone and go I must some time or another
He had even the confidence to tell me that if WenbourneHill were his he would quickly undo every thing that I have been doing
Is not this a sad thing Aby For what have I been labouring Have not we both spent our lives in contriving How many charming thoughts have we
had What pleasure have we taken in planting and pulling up digging and scattering watering and draining turfing and gravelling
Talking of water Aby I cannot forbear mentioning a most delightfully romantic lake which I have met with in the park of the Marquis de Villebrun It is the only thing in the laying out of grounds that I have seen to please me in all France One part of it a fine level such a sweep At the other extremity nothing but rocks and precipices Your son Frank threw himself headlong down one of them into the water to save a gentlemans life Were you but to see it you would be astonished They have called it the Englishmans leap I
would not do such a thing for a million of money I should be dead enough if I did
But Frank is a bold young man and I assure you Aby highly esteemed by my daughter ay and by myself too and by every body very highly indeed He was the whole talk for I know not how many days
But about this money Aby I shall soon want a good round sum if I am not mistaken I may venture Aby to give you a hint that I expect very soon indeed I dont know how soon a proposal should be made to me for my daughter and if it be I am so pleased with the party who let me tell you is a fine spirited young fellow that I assure you I shall not think of refusing my consent
especially as he is so much in the good graces of my daughter In this case I cannot do less than pay twenty thousand pounds down
I am afraid honest Aby we must renounce the wilderness But when you know the party I think you will allow I could not act otherwise
Indeed I find however we may please ourselves we can never satisfy our children Here too has Anna been lecturing me about money thrown away as she is pleased to conceive and has said a great deal indeed against what I thought could not have been found fault with But so it is Friends relations children all are wiser than ourselves All are ready enough to discover or to suppose blemishes Would you think it
possible for any body to be acquainted with WenbourneHill and do any thing but admire My hope nay my determination was to have made it the paradise of England and to have drawn strangers far and near to come and be delighted with its beauties But these rubs and crosses put one out of heart with the most excellent thoughts and contrivances
Let me know what you think can be done in these money matters if things should be as I expect You are perfectly acquainted with the state of my affairs I see no way but that of mortgaging more deeply
It is exceedingly vexatious to think of stopping our proceedings Aby But
what can be done However as I do not intend to stay much longer here we can talk more to the purpose on these matters when we meet in England
Perhaps it would be better to begin by discharging the workmen gradually which you will find proper opportunities to do Aby And if you were by way of talk in the neighbourhood to say that you thought nothing more could be done to WenbourneHill and that you had reason to believe that was my opinion likewise such a report might tie the tongues of cavillers for I would not have it thought we stop for want of money
You may write to me here in answer to this for we shall not leave Paris before
your letter will come to hand And so good Abimelech farewell
A ST IVES
P S
I will not tell you the name of the party from whom I expect the proposal honest Aby because if he should be shy of speaking as youngsters sometimes are it might come to nothing but I may hint to you that you are well acquainted with his family and I dare say you will not be sorry for the match it being so agreeable to my daughters inclination though I grant it may not be so good a one as my sister Wenbourne and others of the family have been expecting because of Annas beauty and accomplishments which I own might well merit a man of higher birth and
fortune But the little huffy has been so nice and squeamish that I began to fear she would take up her silly spendthrift brothers whim and determine to live single therefore I shall not balk her now she seems in the humour
ABIMELECH HENLEY TO FRANK HENLEY
WenbourneHill
WHY ay To be sure This will do I shall be fain to think a summut of ee now you can flamgudgin em a thisn I didnt a think it was innee Why you will become a son of my own begettin I write to tellee the good news and that
ee mightnt a kick down the milk You have a sifflicated Sir Arthur I could a told ee afore that you had a sifflicated Missee But I was afeard as that you wur a too adasht But I tellee it will do Fathers own lad An eartickler Ay ay Thats the trade Sugar the sauce and it goes down glibly
Listen to me I a learnt the secret ont What was I I pray you Pennyless Aby Wet and weary And what am I now A tell me that Why Im a worth—But thats a nether here nor there I tellee And what may you be an you please What should I a bin an I ad had your settins out Why Ide a bin what Ide a pleased A dooke mayhap or a lord mayor of Lunnun—No—A fekittary prime minister—No—A member
of parliament—No—Ide a bin treasurer—Treasurer of the three kinkdums Ide a handled the kole—Ive a feathered my nest as it is and what would I a done then thinkee
Stick close to Sir Arthur Mind your hits and you have him a safe enough Didnt I always tellee you must catch n by the ear A cunnin curr always catches a pig by the ear He expects a proposal for Missee he does not a know how soon And who does he expect to propose Guess Nicodemus if you can Do you mind me He shant refuse his consent Mark you me that They are his own words Twenty thousand pounds down His own words again What do you say to me now Its all your own I mean its all our own—Do you
mind me For who have you to thank for it I tellee it is but ask and have—And how do I know that—Whats that to you Dolt—No no—You are a no dolt now—You are a good lad
I tellee Im in the secret So do you flamdazzle Missee I a heard of your jumpins and swimmins and so that you do but swim to the main chance why ay Thats a summut I a bin to CliftonHall For why I begind to smell a rat And there I talked with tother Missee I a palavered her over I a ferretted and a feagued and a worked and a wormed it all out of she Your name is up You may go to bed Do you mind me You may go to bed to twenty thousand pounds It is as good as all your own
I am a to find the kole that is I first havin and holdin the wherewithalls and the whys and the wherefores And so do you see me I expect to have the handlin ont—But thats a nether here nor there Sir Arthur as good as said it to me—So dont a stand like a Gabriel Gallymaufry all a mort shillyshally I would if I durst—A dip in the skimmin dish and a lick of the fingur—Thats a not the way with a maiden—What A dont I know—Make up to Missee and say to her Missee Here am I My name is Frank Henley My fathers name is Abimelech Henley As a cunnin warm old codger—A tell her that—And says you here Missee says you am I at your onnurable Ladyships reverend sarvice My father has a got
the rhino—A dont forget to tell her that—Smug and snug and all go snacks—Do you mind me And so says you I have a paradventerd umbelly to speak my foolish thofts says you That is take me ritely your Ladyship says you under your Ladyships purtection and currection and every think of that there umbel and very submissive obedient kind says you And so says you do ee see me Missee I onnurs and glorifies your Ladyship and am ready to have and to hold says you go fairly go fouly be happy be lucky any day othe week says you I and my father honest Aby says you He can raise the wind says you He can sind the wherewithalls to pay for lawyers parchment says you—But mind thats a nether here not there—So
a here Missee stands I says you I and my honest old father—As got the marygolds says you The gilly flowers the yellow boys says you Golore—But thats a nether here nor there
So do you tell her all a that I bid ee and a mind your pees and cues Who knows but WenbourneHill itself may be one day all our own I say who knows There be old fools and young fools—I tellee that—Old planners and improvers and bite bubbles and young squitter squanders gamblers and chouse chits—Mark you me that—And there be wax and parchment too—Ay and post obits and besides all doosoors
and perkissits A what is money good for but to make money A tell me that
And so in the name and the lovin kindness of the mercifool sufferins of almighty goodness and peace and glory and heavenly joys no more at present
ABIMELECH HENLEY
ABIMELECH HENLEY TO SIR ARTHUR ST IVES
WenbourneHill
Most onnurable Sir my ever onnurd Master
FOR certainly your noble onnur knows best And thof I have paradventerd now and tan umbelly to speak my foolish thofts and haply may again a paradventer when your most exceptionable onnur shall glorify me with a hearing
in sitch and sitch like cramp cases and queerums as this here yet take me ritely your noble onnur it is always and evermore with every think of that there umbel and very submissive obedient kind
My younk Lady Missee is as elegunt a my Lady younk Missee as any in the three kinks kinkdums A who can gain say it She is the flour of the flock I must a say that The whole country says it For why as aforesaid a who can gain say it A tell me that Always a savin and exceptin your noble onnur as in rite and duty boundin What your most gracious onnur a hannot I had the glory and the magnifisunce to dangle her in my arms before she was a three months old A hannot I a
known her from the hour of her birth Nay as a I may say afore her blessed peepers a twinkled the glory everlastin of infinit mercifool commiseration and sunshine A didnt I bob her here and bob her there a up and a down aback and afore and about with a sweet gracious a krow and a kiss for honest poor Aby as your onnur and your onnurable Madam my Lady ever gracious to me a poor sinner used then to call me
Not but those times are a passt But a savin and exceptin your noble onnur thats a nether here nor there I may hold up my head as well as another A why not When so be as a man has no money why then a savin and exceptin your onnurs reverence as but a poor dog But when so be as a man as a got
the rhino why then a may begin to hold up his head A why not Always a savin and exceptin your noble onnur as aforesaid
Your noble onnur knows that Im a be apt to let my tongue mag a little when my wits be a set a gaddin and whereupon the case is as witch your noble onnur was pleased to sifflicate me upon in your last rite onnurable and mercifool letter For why A mans son as I may say is himself and twenty thousand pounds thof it be not a penny too much is somethink For witch the blessin and glory of goodness and praise be with the donors Nevertheless that there will likewise be the wherewithalls mayhap notwithstandin when my head comes to be laid low Thof if so be I
cannot but say that a man would rather a not think of that there if a could help it A savin and exceptin that the blessin and glory and power and praise of the saints and the martyrs and the profits and the cherubims and serafims and the amen allelujahs might a be summut to a dyin soul when a has had god be mercifool unto us time for repentance and the washin away of the sins of this wickedness world by good deeds and charity and mercy and lovin kindness unto all men when the poor miserable sinner with groans and tears and eternal terrifyins of the flamin prince Lucifer Belzebub of darkness everlastin is at last obliged to take leave of the soul from the body Ah a well a day Man is a reprobation race As a given over
to sin and to shame and to backslidins and to the slough of despond and to the valley of the shaddow of death and if a has not miserable sinner a time to repent of a witch be evermore granted unto us all world without end Amen Amen
Ah dear a me what have I a bin talkin to your most gracious onnur I was a meant to tell your noble onnur that the twenty thousand pounds mayhap might a be forth cummin on proper occasions and certificates and securities and doosoors and perkissits all of the witch as my ever onnurd master aforetime knows there is no a doin a business without For why—Money is money and land is land and there be troubles and takins and seekins and enquirins and profit and loss and ifs
and mayhaps and all a that there of the witch there is no a doing without But nevertheless I dares to say likewise and notwithstandin as aforesaid that the money may be a forth cummin
Nay and if so be the witch that I might a paradventer to advise but that to be sure I should not a like to have it a thoft that I should perk and put in my oar all agog to my betters and moreover one of his majestys baronets otherwise I should say nevertheless as aforesaid that the younk lady is the flour of the flock and if so be as I had the onnurable grace and blessin to be her father I would a give her and a make over to her now and evermore hereafter all a that the law would a let me And a let em tell me your noble onnur who
desarves it better What Is nt she as I may say the very firmament of the power and glory of praise What is ivory and alablaster a parallel to her Let em a tell me that If I wus the onnurable father of sitch ever mercifool affabibility would a not I be fain to give her gems and rubies and carbuncles if I had em Who should gain say me A savin and exceptin your ever exceptionable and noble onnur I would nt a be meant to be thoft to put in a word for meself by no manner of account no no far be it from me but in other partikillers if so be that it wus me meself I should nt a grutch her kinkdums And ast to thwartin and knatterin and crossin the kindly sweet virginal soul ever blessed as she is in love for what
truly Your noble onnur has too much bowels of fatherly miseration No no—Your noble onnur has a clencht it take her now she is in the humour Whereby maidens be wayward and fain and froward and full of skittish tricks when they be happen to be crossed in love Take her in the humour your wise and alwise noble onnur
Whereof your onnur was a menshinnin a stagnation to be put in the spoke of the wheel of improvements Whereof if I might a paradventer to put in my oar I should say why that should be as it might a be happen When if as I should ever live to see the glorious day of this marriage match rejoice the heart of WenbourneHill why then I should know how to speak my poor thofts
For why All would then be clear and above board and we should all a know who and who was together That would be summut We might then a be happen to raise the wind and the wherewithalls might a be forth cummin
And so as matters and thinks is likely to turn out to be sure I must say that your onnur has a hit the nail on the head Whereof as your onnur has a ushered your commands I shall begin to take care of the kole and send them there rapscallions a packin
And as to the flickers and fleers of the neighbours your onnurable onnur a leave me to humdudgin they Ill a send their wits a woolgatherin For why Your onnurable onnur has always a had my lovin kindness of blessins of
praise as in duty boundin For certainly I should be fain to praise the bridge that a carries me safe over And now that your onnur is a thinkin of a more of lovin kindness and mercies to me and mine why a what should I say now Why I should say and should glorify to all the world that your onnur is my ever onnured and rite most mercifool bountifool faithfool and disrespectfool kind master and that I be your ever rite and most trusty true honest Aby and every think of that there umbel and very submissive obedient kind as in duty boundin
But I a bin a thinkin your ever gracious onnur that a behap the kintlin may stand alooft and a hang
and a be adasht And a what is to be done then Why then whereupon if that your ever gracious onnur would but be so all mercifool in goodness as to say the word why we should be upon sure ground and all our quips and quandaries and afterclaps would a be chouse clickt I most umbelly pray and besiege your onnur to be so mercifool as to think o that there Do ee your ever gracious onnur I pray your onnur doo ee Then we should a be all sound and safe over and it would all a be holiday at WenbourneHill A that would be a glorified day The lawjus mighty ay It would
Witch is all in praise and onnur of the glory and peace to come thanksgivin
and gladness umbelly beggin leave to super scribe me self
ABIMELECH HENLEY
I neednt a say nothink of a concernin of a dockin of the entail to your onnur For why As your onnur knows nothink can be done in the way of the kole and the wherewithalls without a that there But ast for that a that argufies nothink For why His younk onnur I knows will be a willin enough that is settin the case of a proviso of a doosoor consideration in ready rhino for himself A told me himself his younk onnur that a will have that A says a will sell his chance and a does nt a care how soon but a wonnot give it away Witch if so be as it be not to be helpt why a what be to be done your onnur
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
Paris Hotel de lUniversité
YOUR brother has this moment left me Our conversation has been animated and as usual I sit down to commit what has passed to paper while it is fresh on my memory
He began with the warmest expressions of the force of his passion I have
no reason to doubt of their sincerity and if affection can be productive of the end which I hope its strength ought to give me pleasure He would scarcely suffer me to suppose it possible there could be any cause of difference between us let me but name my conditions and they should be fulfilled He would undertake all that I did all that I could require and it was with difficulty that I could persuade him of the possibility of promising too fast This introduced what was most material in our dialogue
My heart assures me madam said he that I never gave you the least cause to suspect the sincerity and ardour of my passion and I should hope that the sears which I have sometimes thought
you too readily entertained are now dissipated
My fears are chiefly for or rather of myself I doubt whether any person has so high an opinion of the powers and energy of your mind as I have but I think those powers ill directed and in danger of being lost
I own madam I have been sometimes grieved nay piqued to perceive that you do not always think quite so well of me as I could wish
You wrong me You yourself do not think so highly of yourself as I do
Yet you suppose me to be in danger
Of being misled Some of my opinions and principles or some of yours are erroneous for they differ I cannot
at this moment but perceive how liable I am to be misunderstood I cannot be insensible of the awkwardness of the situation in which I now place myself My age my sex the customs of the world a thousand circumstances contribute to cast an air of ridicule upon what ought to be very serious But I must persist Do you endeavour to forget these circumstances and consider only the words not the girl by whom they are spoken
It is not you madam but I who ought to dread appearing ridiculous But for your sake—Let me but obtain your favour and make me as ridiculous as you please
I told you so—Should the lordly lettered man submit to have his principles
questioned by an untutored woman Be sincere your mind revolts at it
I feel the justness of your satire Men are tyrants
Prejudice is a tyrant there is no other tyranny
Madam
That is one of my strange opinions
It may be true I am willing to think it is Such things are indifferent to me Let me but have your consent to speak to Sir Arthur and I have accomplished all I wish I do not desire to trouble myself with examining opinions true or false I am determined to be of your opinion be it what it will
That is you avow that the gratification
of your desires is the chief pursuit of your life We have now found the essential point on which we differ
Is not happiness madam the universal pursuit Must it not ought it not to be
Yes But the grand distinction is between general and individual happiness The happiness that centres in the good of the whole may for the present find momentary interruption but never can be long subverted while that individual happiness of which almost the whole world is in pursuit is continually blundering mistaking its object losing its road and ending in disappointment
Then madam we must all turn monks preach selfdenial fast pray
scourge away our sins live groaning and die grieving
I smiled It is his usual way when he thinks I am got a little in the clouds to draw some humorous or satirical picture to bring me down to what he esteems commonsense But as I am convinced that truth only need to be repeated and insisted on whenever there is an opportunity in order finally to be received the best way is always to join in the laugh which is inoffensive unless pettishness give it a sting
You find yourself obliged at present to consider me as a whimsical girl with a certain flow of spirits and much vanity desiring to distinguish herself by singularity
No madam Whatever you may think of me my heart will not endure a thought to your disadvantage
Nay nay forbear your kind reproaches Every time you differ with me in sentiment you cannot but think something to my disadvantage It is so with all of us The very end of this present explanation is sincerity We each think well of the other but do we think sufficiently well Is there a certainty that our thoughts are in no danger of changing Of all the actions of private life there is not one so solemn as that of vowing perpetual love yet the heedless levity with which it is daily performed proves that there is scarcely one on which less serious reflection is bestowed Can we be too careful not to deceive ourselves
Ought we not minutely to examine our hopes and expectations Ought not you and I in particular to be circumspect Our imaginations are vivid our feelings strong our views and desires not bounded by common rules In such minds passions if not subdued become ungovernable and fatal
I am very conscious madam—
Nay do not fancy I seek to accuse my purpose is very different My mind is no less ardent than yours though education and habit may have given it a different turn It glows with equal zeal to attain its end Where there is much warmth much enthusiasm I suspect there is much danger We had better never meet more than meet to be miserable
For heavens sake madam do not torture me with so impossible a supposition
You expect one kind of happiness I another Can they coalesce You imagine you have a right to attend to your appetites and pursue your pleasures I hope to see my husband forgetting himself or rather placing selfgratification in the pursuit of universal good deaf to the calls of passion willing to encounter adversity reproof nay death the champion of truth and the determined the unrelenting enemy of error
I think madam I dare do all that can be required of me
I know your courage is high I know too that courage is one of the first and
most essential qualities of mind Yet perhaps I might and ought to doubt nay to ask whether you dare do many things
What is it madam that I dare not do
Dare you receive a blow or suffer yourself falsely to be called lair or coward without seeking revenge or what honour calls satisfaction Dare you think the servant that cleans your shoes is your equal unless not so wise or good a man and your superior if wiser and better Dare you suppose mind has no sex and that woman is not by nature the inferior of man—
Madam—
Nay nay no compliments I will not be interrupted—Dare you think that
riches rank and power are usurpations and that wisdom and virtue only can claim distinction Dare you make it the business of your whole life to overturn these prejudices and to promote among mankind that spirit of universal benevolence which shall render them all equals all brothers all stripped of their artificial and false wants all participating the labour requisite to produce the necessaries of life and all combining in one universal effort of mind for the progress of knowledge the destruction of error and the spreading of eternal truth
There is such energy madam in all you say that while I listen to you I dare do any thing dare promise any thing
Nay but the daring of which I speak
must be the energy of your own mind not of mine
Do not distress yourself and me with doubts madam I have heard you yourself say that truth ultimately must prevail I may differ with you in some points but I am willing to hear willing to discuss and if truth be on your side there can be no danger
The only danger is in the feeble or false colouring which the defenders of truth may give it and not in truth itself
I am too well convinced of your power to feel your doubts You oblige me to see with your eyes hear with your ears believe what you believe and reject what you think incredible I am and
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must be whatever you please to make me You have but to prescribe your own conditions
Prescribe I must not If I can persuade if I can win upon your mind—
If— You won my whole soul the very first moment I saw you Not a word or action of mine but what has proclaimed the burning impatience of my passion
True the burning impatience—Your eagerness to assent will not suffer you to examine Your opinions and principles are those which the world most highly approves and applauds mine are what it daily calls extravagant impracticable and absurd It would be weak in me to expect you should implicitly receive remote truths so contradictory to this general practice till you have first deeply
considered them I ask no such miracle But if I can but turn your mind to such considerations if I can but convince you how inestimable they are even to yourself as well as to the world at large I shall then have effected my purpose
Of that madam be sure—You shall see—Upon my honour you shall—I will order a furcap a long gown a white wand and a pair of sandals this very day No Grecian ever looked more grave than I will Nay if you desire it razor shall never touch my chin more
Well well equip yourself speedily and I will provide you with a wooden dish a lanthorn and a tub
But then having made your conditions you now grant me your consent
That is obliging me once more to put on my serious face—The danger in which I so lately saw you hangs heavily on my mind that and the warm passions by which it was occasioned
And my excess of ardour to demonstrate my love you regard as a proof of my having none
How passion overshoots itself Your conclusion is as precipitate as was your proof
I cannot be cool madam on this subject I wonder to see you so Did affection throb and burn in your bosom as it does in mine I am persuaded it would be otherwise
We are neither of us so entirely satisfied with each other as we ought to be
to induce either me to consent or you to apply to Sir Arthur
For heavens sake madam—
Hear me patiently for a moment Previous to this conversation I was convinced of the folly and danger of excessive haste Should you imagine I have any selfcomplacency or caprice to gratify by delay you will do me great injustice I solemnly protest I have none My own interest had I no better motive would make me avoid such conduct The inconsistencies and vain antics of the girl which are justly enough stigmatized by the epithets flirting and coquetry are repaid tenfold upon the wife I would deal openly honestly and generously but not rashly I have every
predilection in your favour which you could wish such doubts excepted as I have declared But I must not give either you or the world cause to accuse me of levity My consent to speak to Sir Arthur would be generally understood as a pledge to proceed not it is true by me if I saw just cause to retract but though I earnestly desire to reform I almost as earnestly wish not unnecessarily to offend the prejudices of mankind
Nay let me beg let me conjure you—He took both my hands with great ardour
And let me beg too let me conjure you not to think meanly or unkindly of me when I tell you that I must insist on a short delay
I will kneel I will do any thing—
Do nothing which your heart does not approve it never can be the way to forward any worthy suit For my part I must tell you which you may reckon among my faults that when I have once considered a subject I am a very positive and determined girl This may be thought obstinacy but such I am and such therefore you ought to see me
And when madam may I now presume to hope
Do not speak as if you were displeased Indeed it is far from my intention to offend
You are too well acquainted madam with your own power of pleasing to fear giving offence
Far the contrary for I fear it at this moment
You are kind and killing both in a breath—Be doubly kind and suffer me immediately to speak to Sir Arthur
I told you I am fixed and I assure you it is true
When then may I hope
I could have wished to have seen my friend your sister first but perhaps Sir Arthur may make some stay in London and I should be sorry to delay a moment longer than seems absolutely necessary Let us both consider what has passed this morning and provided no new accident should intervene—
Another leap from a rock
Provided our approbation and esteem for each other should continue and increase I will ask for no further delay after we come to London
Well well It is the poor lovers duty to thank his mistress for the greatness of her condescension even when he thinks she uses him unkindly
I was going to reply but my enterprising gentleman—Indeed Louisa your brother is a bold youth—snatched an unexpected embrace with more eagerness than fear and then fell on one knee making such a piteous face for forgiveness so whimsical and indeed I may say witty that it was impossible to be serious However I hurried away and thus the conference ended
And now after reviewing what has passed tell me Louisa ought I to recede Are not my hopes well founded Must not the reiteration of truth make its due impression upon a mind like
Cliftons Can it fail Is he not the man who for all the reasons formerly given truly merits preference
I must not forget to tell you that Frank readily complied with your request and Clifton has seen the letters He seems oppressed as it were with a sense of obligation to Frank which the latter endeavours to convince him is wrong Reciprocal duties he says always must exist among mankind but as for obligations further than those there are none A grateful man is either a weak or a proud man and ingratitude cannot exist unless by ingratitude injustice be meant Franks opinions appear to Clifton to be equally ← novel → with mine and must be well understood to escape being treated with mockery
It is infinitely pleasing to me to perceive the fortitude with which Frank resists inclination He is almost as cheerful and quite as communicative and desirous of making all around him happy as ever His constancy however is not to be shaken in one particular I could wish it were It pains me to recollect that he will persist to the end of time in thinking me his by right
I cannot proceed
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
Paris Hotel de l Université
LAUGH at me if you will Fairfax Hoot Hiss me off the stage I am no longer worthy of the confraternity of honest bold free and successful fellows I am dwindling into a whining submissive crouching very humble yes if you please no thank you Madam dangler I have
been to school Have had my task set me Must learn my lesson by rote or there is a rod in pickle for me Yes I That identical Clifton that bold gay spirited fellow who has so often vaunted of and been admired for his daring You may meet me with my satchel at my back not with a shining but a whindling lackadai sy greensickness face blubbering a months sorrow after having been flogged by my master beaten by my chum and dropped my plum cake in the kennel
Tis very true and I cut a damned ridiculous figure But Ill remember it The time will come or say my name is not Clifton
Yet what am I to do I am in for it flounder how I will Yes yes She has
hooked me She dangles me at the end of her line up the stream and down the stream fair water and foul at her good pleasure So be it But I will not forget
Then she has such a way of affronting that curse me if she does not look as if she were doing me a favour nay and while she is present I myself actually think she is and if vexation did not come to my relief I believe I should so continue to think She is the most extraordinary of all heavens creatures and in despite of my railing I cannot help declaring a most heavenly creature she is Every body declares the same I wish you could but see her for a single moment Fairfax and having gazed could you but listen—Her very soul is music Form features
voice all are harmony Then were you to hear her sing and play—
But why the devil does she treat me thus It is something to which I am unaccustomed and it does not sit easily upon me If I tamely submit to it may I— I lie in my teeth Submit I must bounce how I will I have no remedy—
She gives me the preference tis true But what sort of a preference Why a cold scrutinizing very considerative all wisdom and no passion preference I do not think there is upon the face of the whole earth so nauseous a thing as an over dose of wisdom mixed up according to the modern practice with a quantum sufficit of virtue and a large double handful of the good of the whole
Yet this is the very dose she prescribes for me Ay and I must be obliged to swallow it too let me make what wry faces I please or my very prudent lady is not so deeply in love but she can recede And shall I not note down this in my tablets—
I was sufficiently piqued at the first delay Why delay when I offer Would you have thought Fairfax I should have been so very ready with a tender of this my pleasant person and my dear freedom And could you moreover have thought it would have been so haughtily rejected—No—Curse it Let me do her justice too It is not haughtily She puts as many smiles and as much sweetness and plausibility
into her refusal as heart could desire But refusal it is nevertheless
I must be further just to her I must own that I have acted like a lunatic—I am mad at the recollection—
I told you of the young fellow—Frank Henley—Whom I talked of chastising Curse on my petulance He has doubly chastised me since He has had his full revenge And in such a generous noble manner—I am ashamed of myself—He has saved my life and damn me if I do not feel as if I could never forgive him There was an end of me and my passions What business had he to interfere—He did it too in such an extraordinary style He appears to have risked more laboured more
performed more for me than man almost ever did for his dearest and sworn friend
Mine was an act of such ridiculous phrensy that I am half ashamed to tell what it was I jumped headlong down a declivity because I knew I was a good swimmer into a lake but like a blockhead never perceived that I should get stunned by the shelving of the rock and consequently drowned And for what truly Why to prove to a vapouring crackbrained French Count that he was a coward because perhaps he had not learned to swim When I look back I have absolutely no patience with myself—
And then this generous Frank Henley—After a still more seemingly desperate leap than mine and bringing me
out of the water dead as a door nail two hours did he incessantly labour to restore me to life I who a few hours before had struck him And here do I live to relate all this
I think I could have forgiven him any thing sooner than this triumph over me Yet he claims and forces my admiration I must own he is a dauntless fellow—Yes he has a heart— Damn him I could kiss him one minute and kill him the next
He has been the hero of the women ever since But they are safe enough for him He has principles He is a man of virtue forsooth He is not the naughty cat that steals the cream Let him be virtuous Let him lave in his own imaginary waters of purity but do
not let him offend others every moment by jumping out and calling—Here Look at me How white and spotless I am
As I tell you the women are bewitched to him are all in love with him My sister Louisa does not scruple to tell him so in her letter But she is one of these highflyers Nor can I for the soul of me persuade myself that family pride excepted she—ay she herself my she would not prefer him to me But these gentry are all so intolerably prudent that talk to them of passions and they answer they must not have any Oh no They are above such mundane weakness
As for him he sits in as much stern state as the Old Red Lion of Brentford
Yes he is my Lord Chief Justice Nevergrin He cannot qualify he He is prime tinker to Madam Virtue and carries no softening epithets in his budget Folly is folly and vice vice in his Good Friday vocabulary—Titles too are gilt gingerbread dutch dolls punchs puppet show A duke or a scavenger with him are exactly the same—Saving and excepting the aforesaid exceptions of wisdom virtue and the good of the whole
Did you never observe Fairfax how these fellows of obscure birth labour to pull down rank and reduce all to their own level
Not but it is cursed provoking to be obliged to own that a title is no sufficient passport for so much as common sense
I sincerely think there is not so foolish a fellow in the three kingdoms as the noble blockhead to whom I have the honour to be related Lord Evelyn and while I have tickled my fancy with the recollection of my own high descent curse me if I have not blushed to acknowledge him who is the head and representative of the race as my kinsman I own however he has been of some service to me in the present affair for by his medium I have been introduced to the uncle of my deity Lord FitzAllen who has considerable influence in the family and the very essence of whose character is pride He is proud of himself proud of his family proud of his titles proud of his gout proud of his cat proud of whatever can be called his by
which appellation in his opinion his very coachhorses are dignified I happen to please him not by any qualities of mind or person of which he is tolerably insensible but because there is a possibility that I may one day be a peer of the realm if my booby relations will but be so indulgent as to die fast enough
Once more to these catechumenical inspectors of morality these selfappointed overseers of the conscioence
I do not deny that there is some nay much truth in the doctrines they preach to me But I hate preaching I have not time to be wisdom crammed What concern is it of mine What have I to do with the world be it wrong or right wise or foolish Let it laugh or cry kiss or curse as it pleases Like the Irishman
in the sinking ship Tis nothing to me I am but a passenger
But notwithstanding these airs I have my lesson set me Ay and I must con it too must say it off by rote no parrot better
There is no resisting ones destiny and to be her slave is preferable to reigning over worlds You have for you can have no conception of her and her omnipotence She is so unlike every other woman on earth I wonder while I hear her am attentive nay am convinced What is most strange though the divinest creature that ever the hand of Heaven fashioned the moment she begins to speak you forget that she is beautiful
But she should not hesitate when I offer No—She should beware of that At least to any other woman the world contains it would have been dangerous and I am not sure that even she is safe
However I must learn to parse my lesson for the present and be quiet Yes yes she shall find me very complaisant I must be so for live without her I cannot She must she shall be mine It is a prize which I am born to bear away from all competitors This is what flatters and consoles me
You Fairfax think yourself more in luck You continue to range at large You scorn to wear the chain today which you cannot shake off laughingly tomorrow—Well I envy you not—When
you see her if you do not envy me may I be impaled and left to roast in the sun a banquet for the crows
Good night
C CLIFTON
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
Paris Hotel de lUniversité
SOME events have happened since I wrote to thee on which I meant to have been silent till we had met but I want thy advice on a new incident and must therefore briefly relate what has passed I have had an opportunity of appeasing that hungry vanity which is
continually craving after unwholesome food I have proved to Clifton that it was not fear whichmade me submit to obloquy which in his opinion could only be washed away in blood I have been instrumental in saving his life
There is a half lunatic count who was a visitor at the Chateau and who is enamoured of her whom all are obliged to love and admire I know not whether it be their climate their food their wine or these several causes combining and strengthened by habit or whether it be habit and education only which give the natives of the south of France so much apparently constitutional ardour but such the fact appears to be This count is one of the most extravagant of all the hotbrained race I have
mentioned He indulges and feeds his flighty fancy by reading books of chivalry and admiring the most romantic of the imaginary feats of knighterrantry
The too haughty Clifton angry that he should dare to address her to whom he openly paid his court fell into habitual contests with him daring him to shew who could be most desperate and at last gave a tolerably strong proof that though he has an infinitely more consistent mind he can be at moments more mad than the count himself He leaped down a rock into a lake where it is probable he must have perished but for me
One would have imagined that what followed would have cooled even a Marseillian fever of such phrensy But no
the count has been brooding over the recollection till he had persuaded himself he was a dishonoured man and must find some means to do away the disgrace I thought him gone to Fontainebleau but instead of that he has just been here He came and inquired of the servants for the monsieur who had taken the famous leap cursing all English names as too barbarous to be understood by a delicate Provençal ear and wholly incapable of being remembered The servants thinking he meant me for I was obliged to leap too introduced him to my apartment
Luckily Clifton was out for the day She and Sir Arthur were with him I am hourly put to the trial Oliver
of seeing him preferred—But—Pshaw—
After a torrent of crazy compliments from the count who professes to admire me I learned at last it was Clifton and not me he wanted and I also learned in part what was the purport of his errand His mind was too full not to overflow Knowing how hot unruly and on such subjects irrational the spirits were that were in danger of encountering I was immediately alarmed The most effectual expedient I could conceive to prevent mischief was to shew its actual absurdity I saw no better way than that of making it appear as it really was its tragical consequences excepted ludicrous But the difficulty was to give it
the colouring which should produce that effect on a mind so distorted
Mort de ma vie said the count I shall never pardon myself for having lost so fine an opportunity I am not so heavy as he I should not have been hurt by the fall I should have saved the life of my rival and been admired by the whole world My triumph would have been complete Every gazette in Europe would have trumpeted the exploit and the family of Beaunoir would have been rendered famous by me to all eternity No I never shall forgive myself
I think sir you ought rather to be angry with me than with Mr Clifton
Parbleu I have been thinking of that Why did you prevent me The thought
could not long have escaped me if you had not been in such devilish haste
True The only danger was that while you were waiting for the thought the gentleman might have been drowned
Diable memporte I had forgotten that Well then I must have satisfaction of Monsieur Calif—Morbleu—What is the gentlemans name
I wish I could confide enough in my French to write the dialogue in the language in which it passed but I must not attempt it The ideas however are tolerably strong in my memory and they must suffice
Clifton
Oui da—Califton—Monsieur Califton must give me satisfaction for the sanglante affront I have received
But I cannot conceive sir how any mans thinking proper to kill himself can be an affront to another
Comment Monsieur Peste But it is if he kill himself to prove me a coward
Then sir I am afraid there is not a madman in Bedlam who does not daily affront the whole world
How so sir
By doing something which no man in his senses dare imitate
Nom dun Dieu Monsieur I am a man of honour The family of Beaunoir is renowned for its noble feats it shall not be disgraced by me I have been defied and I will have satisfaction
But you were not defied to sword or pistol You were defied to leap
Well sir
And before as a man of honour you can have any right to give a second challenge you must answer the first
Is that your opinion sir
Nay I appeal to yourself
Allons—If so I must leap Will you do me the favour to accompany me I will order posthorses instantly You shall be my witness that I perform the first condition
Can you swim
Ventrebleu What a question I am not heavy enough to sink Besides sir I was born at Marseilles—Yes we will go together you shall see me make the leap after which I may then return and publish my defiance to the whole universe
No sir If you leap you will never publish your defiance
How so
You will be killed The whole universe could not save you
Comment diable Look at me Look at Monsieur Calif I am as light as— Peste
Yes but you are not so strong as he you cannot leap so far His effort was prodigious I have examined the place and had he fallen half a foot short of where he did he must have been dashed to pieces
Fer et feu—In that case I must die—Yes I must die There is no remedy I must not dishonour my family No man on earth must brave the Count de Beaunoir I must die
And be laughed at
Laugh sir Mort de ma vie Who will dare to laugh
When you are dead of what should they be afraid
Morbleu Thats true
He would be a rash fool who should dare to laugh at you while you are living
Foi dun honnête homme monsieur you are a man of honour a gentleman You are brave yourself and know how to honour brave men and I esteem you
Sir if you really esteem me—
Ventrebleu Sir I esteem you more than any man on earth Command my purse my sword I would serve you at the hazard of my life
Then let me prevail on you sir to
consider well what I say I solemnly assure you I would not advise you to any thing which I would not do myself
Pardieu Monsieur I am sure you would not You have too much honour
I have too much regard to truth
Cest la même chose
Men honour themselves most by opposing nay by acting in the very teeth of the prejudices of mankind and he is the bravest man who opposes them the oftenest The world makes laws and afterward laughs at or despises those by whom they are obeyed He proves the nobleness of his nature best who acts with most wisdom Recollect the madness
with which Mr Clifton acted how much he was blamed by every body and imagine to yourself the temper of your own countrymen then ask whether you would not be laughed at instead of applauded and admired were you so madly to throw away a life which you ought to dedicate to your country The Parisians would write epigrams and songs and sing them in every street on the nobleman who instead of living to fight the battles of his country should toss himself like a lunatic down a rock and dash out his brains
Que Dieu me damne monsieur but you are in the right Yes I am a soldier My country claims my sword I hear we are soon to have a war with England and then— Gardezvous bien Messieurs
les Anglois—Where is Monsieur Calif—
Mr Clifton will not be at home today
Well sir be so kind as to present my compliments to him and tell him I would certainly have run him through the body if you had not done me the honour to say all that you have said to me I have appointed to set off for Fontainebleau tomorrow morning but I intend to visit England we may have the good fortune hereafter to meet and then we will come to an explanation
After a thousand whimsical half crazy but well meaning and I believe very sincere compliments and offers of
service he left me and I hope the danger is over
But as I told thee Oliver the chief purpose of my writing is to ask thy advice Principle as thou well knowest is too severe to admit of falsehood direct or indirect To mention this dialogue to Clifton might be dangerous It ought not to be I grant but still it might One would imagine that instead of feeling anger he must laugh were he told of what has passed but there is no certainty And is not silence indirect falsehood The count has been here his errand was to Clifton Ought he not to be told of it and suffered to judge for himself And is not concealment an indirect falsehood To me it appears the contrary He is full
as likely to take the wrong as the right side of the question I see a possibility of harm but no injury that can be done by silence Nor do I myself perceive how it can be classed among untruths Still the doubt has occurred to my mind and I have not hitherto answered it to my own satisfaction
I forgot to tell thee with what ardour the count declared himself an admirer of her who is most admirable and the romantic but very serious effervescence with which he called himself her champion one who had devoted himself to maintain her superiority over her whole sex which he would die affirming and to revenge her wrongs if ever mortal should be daring or guilty enough to do her injustice But as I tell thee he
is an eccentric and undefinable character
I have lately received a letter from my father from which I find he has been led by I know not what mistake to conclude that Sir Arthur thinks of me for his soninlaw His letter as usual is a strange one and such as I believe no man on earth but himself could write
Direct thy next to me in Grosvenor Street for we shall be on our return before I shall receive an answer
Farewell
F HENLEY
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
WHAT strange perversity of accidents is it Louisa that has made me most deeply indebted to that man above all others on the face of the earth who thinks I have treated him unjustly We are under fresh obligations nay in
all probability we again owe our lives to Frank Henley
We left Paris on Sunday last and after waiting a day and a night for a fair wind at Calais we embarked on board the packetboat the wind still continuing unfavourable though it had changed a little for the better The channel was very rough and the water ran high when we went on board Sir Arthur would willingly have retreated but Clifton was too impatient and prevailed on him to venture
Before we had reached the middle of the channel Laura Sir Arthur and soon afterward I were very seasick It is a most disagreeable sensation when violent and would certainly be more effectual
in rendering a coward fearless of death than the dying sentiments of Seneca or Socrates himself
The wind increased and the captain laboured several hours but in vain to make the port of Dover He at last told us we were too late for the tide and that the current set against us and must drive us down to Deal We proceeded accordingly and it was dark before we came within sight of the town of Deal where the captain in the sea phrase was obliged to come to an anchor
The Deal boatmen who are always on the watch and are the most noted as we are told on the whole coast for their extortion soon came up to the ship inviting us to be put on shore but refusing to take us for less than ten guineas
Frank and Sir Arthur were desirous that we should not be imposed upon but Clifton pleaded my sea sickness and would not listen to any proposal of delay He is very peremptory when his passions are excited and especially when he conceives as he then did that reason is on his side There were three boats but they had agreed among themselves and two of them kept aloof This we are told is their common practice that they may not spoil their market by competitorship
We were not above a mile from shore Clifton however agreed to their extravagant demand and we went into the boat
We had not been there many minutes before we perceived that the five boatmen
who managed it were all in liquor especially he who seemed to be their head man and that we were much more at the mercy of winds and waves in our present than in our former situation Clifton and Frank endeavoured to make them attentive by reproving them and probably did some good though the answers they received in the rugged vulgar idiom of the sea were not very conciliatory We were much tossed by the roughness of the water but made however toward the shore though evidently in an awkward and dangerous way
Most part of the beach at Deal is excessively steep and when the weather is stormy the waves break against it very abruptly and dangerously to boats which
are managed by men that are either ignorant or have drunken away their senses When the boat approached the beach the man at the helm being stupid and it being dark did not do his duty and the side of the boat was dashed against the beach The shock almost overset the boat and it was half filled by the wave which broke over it The water is always a fickle and perilous element but in an agitated sea when the winds howl and the waves roar foam dash retreat and return with additional threats and raging it is then truly terrific I shall never forget that night I think on it even now with horror One of those poor drunken creatures Louisa was in an instant washed overboard and lost almost without a cry not
heard not aided scarcely remarked no attempt made to save him for all attempt was absolutely impossible we were within a few yards of land yet were ourselves almost certain of perishing The remaining men were little better than helpless for it was the most active of them who was thus miserably drowned—Indeed Louisa it was dreadful
The reflux of the water was in half a minute likely to be equally violent Frank whose presence of mind never forsakes him saw what the nature of our danger was and shaking off poor Laura who clung round him begging of him for Gods sake to save her precious life he flew to the helm turned the
head of the boat in its proper direction and called with that imperious kind of voice which on such occasions enforces obedience for somebody to come to the helm Clifton was there in an instant Keep it said Frank in this position
Every motion was necessarily rapid Frank was immediately out of the boat and almost up to the shoulders in the sea He caught hold of the side of the boat retreated a step or two set his feet against the steep beach and steadied it to resist the returning wave It had no sooner retreated than he called to me took me in his arms and in a moment I found myself in safety on shore
He returned and brought my father next
Poor Laura shrieked with fear and impatience She was the third whom he landed
He then ordered the boatmen to take care of themselves and drunk and refractory though they were they did not neglect to obey the mandate After which Clifton leaving the helm jumped into the water the servants having gone before and we all found ourselves safe after some of us had concluded we were lost beyond redemption
Our peril appears to have been wholly owing to the inebriety of the boatmen for had they been able to do their duty there would have been none or certainly very little and it was averted by the active and penetrating mind of Frank which seems as if it were most accurate
and determined in its conclusions and expedients in proportion to the greatness of the danger when common minds would be wholly confused and impotent
Clifton though he did not so immediately perceive what was best to be done saw the propriety of it when doing and immediately assented and aided by keeping the boat in the position Frank directed almost as essentially as his coadjutor I am more and more convinced it is accident only that has kept him from possessing one of the most enlarged of human understandings But I must likewise allow that this said accident has rendered him petulant impatient of contradiction too precipitate to be always aware of mistake and too positive to be easily governed But these are
habitual errors which time and care will cure
I must add too that his affection for me displays itself in a thousand various forms He is apparently never satisfied except when it is exercised to give or procure me pleasure I know not whether the passion which infuses itself into all his words and actions that relate to me ought to inspire all that sympathetic sensibility which he intends but I own it sometimes alarms me His ardour is astonishing He seems to wish and even to design to make it irresistible Yet it is mingled with such excess of tenderness that I have half lost the power of repressing it
But I must not no I will not stand in awe of his impetuosity Ardour is a
noble quality and my study shall be how to turn it to his advantage The more I look round me the more I perceive that fear enfeebles withers and consumes the powers of mind Those who would nobly do must nobly dare Rash people perhaps are those who feel the truth of this principle so strongly that they forget it is necessary not only to dare but to discover the best method of daring
Clifton now avoids argument and appears systematically determined to be of my opinion or rather to say as I say The only opposition he affords is now and then a witty sarcastic or humorous reply But he is generally successful in his continual attempts to give the conversation a new turn when his favourite opinions are opposed for I do not think
it wise to obtrude too many painful contradictions upon him at a time Truth must be progressive Like a flash of lightning it stuns or kills by excess
Clifton will not long suffer me to rest now we are returned and consequently my dear Louisa may soon expect another letter from her most affectionate
A W ST IVES
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London Grosvenor Street
WE have now been in London four days Oliver and known places reviving old ideas it almost seems as if we had never moved from the spot where we are at present I fall into the same trains of thinking except that I am more restless more inclined to melancholy
to inaction to a kind of inanity which no trifling efforts can shake off
I have received thy letter and find thy reasoning in some respects similar to my own I was ashamed of remaining in doubt on a question which only required a little extraordinary activity of mind to resolve It appears to me that nothing can be classed among falsehoods except those things the tendency of which is to generate falsehood or mistake Consequently not to tell what has passed to Clifton is acting according to the dictates of truth for to tell would be to run an imminent danger of false conclusions Not it is true if the whole could be told that is if all possible reasonings and consequences could be fairly recollected and stated But
memory is first to be feared and still more that prejudice which will not have the patience to lend mute attention I therefore think with thee that silence in this case is truth
We have been in some danger owing to the drunkenness of the Deal boatmen but saved ourselves by a little exertion One of the poor inebriated wretches however was lost We saw him only the instant of his being washed overboard and he was hurried away into the sea by the recoiling waves in the roaring of which his last cry was overpowered without our being able so much as to attempt to give him aid By which thou mayest judge that we ourselves were in considerable jeopardy
When we reflect how near danger is
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to us daily and hourly through life we are apt to wonder that we so continually escape But when we again consider how easily even great dangers that is such as take us by surprise may be warded off the wonder ceases
My mind Oliver is not at ease it is too much haunted by fear At least I hope it is for my fears are for one whom it is almost torture to suppose in peril Thou never knewest so enterprising so encroaching a youth as this Clifton Nay I am deceived if encroachment be not reduced to system with him and strong as her powers are impossible as I know it to be to shake her principles yet who can say what may happen in a moment of forgetfulness or mistake
to a heart so pure so void of guile
Such terrors are ridiculous perhaps thou wilt say and perhaps they are at least I most devoutly hope they are But his temperament is sanguine his wishes restless ungovernable and I almost fear ominous and his passion for her is already far beyond the controul of reason to which indeed he thinks it ought not to be nor can be subject
As for me all is ended Jealous I must not no I will not be And surely I am above the meanness of envy Yet I own Oliver I sometimes blame her I think her too precipitate too fearless nay too ready to imagine her power her wondrous power greater than it is
She makes no secret of her thoughts and she tells me that she and I she doubts not shall transform him to all that we ourselves could desire Be not surprised at her kindness to me for she has a heart that is all benevolence all friendship all affection If I can aid her thou needest not doubt my will But Heaven grant she may not be mistaken—Heaven grant it
And yet I cannot say I even sometimes hope and acquiesce for his talents are indeed extraordinary But his pride and the pitiless revenge which he shews a constant propensity to take when offended are dangerous symptoms
For her she seems to act from motives wholly different from those of her age
and sex It is not passion not love such as it is usually felt and expressed it is a sense of duty friendship for Louisa admiration of great talents an ardent desire to give those talents their full value and the dignified pride she takes in restoring such a mind to its proper rank By these she is actuated as all her words and actions demonstrate
Well well Oliver She soars a flight that is more than mortal But she leaves a luminous track that guides and invites and I will attempt to follow Thou shalt see me rise above the poor slavish wishes that would chain me to earth—
Oliver my mind like a bow continually bent is too much upon the stretch Such is the effect of my situation of
which my thoughts my language and my actions partake But I will calm this agitation Fear not thou shalt find me worthy to be thy friend and the pupil of thy most excellent father
No I will not Oliver be a child though the contest be indeed severe By day I am with her for hours I listen while she sings or plays or speaks I am a witness of her actions Her form is never absent from me The sound of her voice is unceasing harmony to my ears At night retiring to darkness and thought I pass her chamber door In the morning again I behold the place where all that is heavenly rests I endeavour after apathy I labour to be senseless stupid an idiot I
strain to be dead to supreme excellence But it is the stone of Sisyphus and I am condemned to eter—
Indeed Oliver this weakness is momentary Indeed it is—Fear not thou shalt find me a man be assured thou shalt Though the furies or worse than all that invention can feign the passions throng to assault me I will neither fly nor yield For to do either would be to desert myself my principles my duties
Yet this encroaching spirit that I told thee of—But then what is the strength of him compared to hers What is there to fear What do I fear Why
create horrible shadows purposely to encounter them—No it cannot be
Farewell
F HENLEY
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
YOUR brother has gained his point The deed is done My consent is given For in reality to have withheld it would have had more the appearance of a coquette than of the friend of my Louisa After sufficiently strong hints in the course of the two first days
on the third after our arrival Clifton came His intention was evidently to take no denial It was with difficulty that I could bring him to listen for a few minutes while I repeated principles before declared and required an avowal of how far he thought them an impediment to future happiness To every thing I could ask he was ready to accede
He had nothing to contend nothing to contradict and if he did not think exactly like me in every particular he was determined not to think at all till he could Beside my own conclusions in favour of truth were my safeguard I had not any doubt that reason if attended to must finally prevail and I could not deny that he was at all times ready to pay the strictest attention
Indeed he seemed at first resolved as it were not to enter into any conversation but to claim my promise But I was still more determined to exert myself that the due influence which reason ought always to have over passion might not be lost and sink into habitual and timid concession When he perceived there was no resisting he then listened with a tolerably good grace but still as I said with an apparently preconcerted plan not to contend urging and indeed truly that fair arguments could desire nothing more than patient hearing and this he pledged in his energetic and half wild manner honour body and soul to give I could not desire more sincere asseverations than he made and that they were sincere I cannot doubt Nor do I regret that they
were strong Where there is energy there is the material of which mind is fashioned and the fault must be mine if the work be incomplete Our conversation however was long and when at last obliged to enter into the subject the acuteness and depth of his remarks were strong proof of his powers had any proof been wanting—Yes Louisa the attempt must be made It is a high and indispensable duty and I must neither be deterred by the dread of danger nor swayed by the too seducing emotions of the heart—They must be silenced—They must
I have an assistant worthy of the cause Frank does not shrink from the task though it is but too evident that he has not changed his opinion I know not why but so it is those two particular
sentences continually reverberate in my ear—I feel a certainty of conviction that you act from mistaken principles—To the end of time I shall persist in thinking you mine by right—Oh Louisa
Sir Arthur of course made no difficulty in giving his consent and I imagine Mrs Clifton will this post receive a letter from her son and perhaps another from my father requiring her acquiescence
Sir Arthur has shewn me one of the most strange eccentric and perhaps comic letters from honest Aby that I think I ever read I am glad it is not quite so intelligible to Sir Arthur as it is to me for I see no good that could result were he to understand its true sense The old— I can find no epithet for him that pleases me—Well then—Honest
Aby is excessively anxious that I should marry a son of whom he is so unworthy But his motives are so mean so whimsical and so oddly compounded and described peering as it were through the mask of cunning with which he awkwardly endeavours to conceal them that nothing but reading his letter can give you an idea of its characteristic humour This post I suppose will likewise shew him his mistake How he will receive the news I know not though I suspect he will raise obstacles concerning the money which Sir Arthur wants in order to pay my portion But this will soon be seen
I likewise learn from his letter that my brother is to join in docking the entail of the hereditary estate and that he is willing provided he may share the
spoil How would my heart bleed were I not cured of that prejudice which makes happiness consist in the personal possession of wealth But the system of tyranny would be more firm and durable even than it is did not this mutation of property daily exist and were not the old and honourable families as they call themselves brought to ruin by their foolish and truly dishonourable descendants
Every thing confirms me in the suspicion that honest Aby has been playing a deep game and that both Sir Arthur and my brother have ceded to all the extortions of craft and usury to have their whims and extravagancies supplied
My brother persuades himself that he is determined never to marry and I suppose has formed this determination
purposely that he may spend all he can obtain without being teased by any qualms of conscience For the destructive system of individual property involves a thousand absurdities and the proud but inane successor of a Sydney or a Verulam instead of knowing how difficult the subject of identity itself is instead of perceiving that man is nothing but a continuity or succession of single thoughts and is therefore in reality no more than the thought of the moment believes there is a stable and indubitable affinity between him and his great ancestor
I must now be more than ever determined to accomplish the task I have undertaken and to give to the arms of my best my dearest Louisa a brother worthy of a heart so pure and a sister
such as she herself could wish to be that brothers other half—Very true Louisa It is the old story I am Sir Arthurs vapouring hussey But I comfort myself with reflecting that after the battle is won the rashness of the attack is never remembered or if it be it is always applauded and that all generals great or small confide in their own plans till defeat has proved them to be abortive Something must be ventured ere any thing can be won
Not knowing what might be the notions of Sir Arthur or even of Mrs Clifton concerning the silence they might think it necessary to keep I forbore to mention their plan of which my friend with her consistent frankness informed me till our last conference but I then thought it an indispensable duty
to relate the truth otherwise it might have come at some unlucky moment in the disguise of falsehood and have done mischief Secrets are indeed absolutely contrary to my system Tis pride or false shame that puts blinds to the windows either of the house or of the mind Let the whole world look in and see what is doing that if any thing be wrong it may have an opportunity to reprove and whatever is right there is some hope it may imitate Clifton was pleased to find himself treated with undisguised sincerity Yes Louisa fear not you will find him your brother in virtue as well as in blood
Ever and ever most affectionately A W ST IVES
SIR ARTHUR ST IVES TO THE HONOURABLE MRS CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
DEAR MADAM
OUR plan has succeeded to our wish Mr Clifton is as I may say quite smitten with my daughter And indeed I do not wonder at it for though she is my child I must say she is the sweetest most charming lovely girl I
ever beheld She has always been my darling I have a true fatherly fondness for her and though I own it will not be very convenient to me I mean immediately to raise twenty thousand pounds to pay down as her portion If at my death I should have the power to do more she shall not be forgotten but I promise nothing
As I remember dear madam this was the sum which you said was necessary to redeem certain mortgages pay off encumbrances and enable Mr Clifton to appear in England in a manner becoming the heir of the Clifton family And this sum I think it very fit the daughter of Sir Arthur St Ives should receive I shall accordingly write to my agent and put every thing immediately
in train after which you shall hear from me without delay
If any alteration should have happened in your own views or affairs which may impede or forward our plan you will be kind enough to inform me
I am madam with the truest respect your very obedient humble servant A ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO THE HONOURABLE MRS CLIFTON
London Dover Street
I WRITE to you dear and honoured madam with a grateful and happy heart to thank you for a project so maternally and wisely conceived in my favour and of which I have just been informed by the frankhearted and lovely Anna St Ives Of all the blessings for which
madam I hold myself indebted to you this last of discovering and endeavouring to secure for your thankful son a gem so precious a lady so above all praise I esteem to be the greatest
You dear madam are acquainted with the propriety with which she thinks and acts on every occasion and I have no doubt will join with me in applauding the entire undisguisedness of relating all that had passed which appeared to her delicate mind at this moment to be absolutely necessary
After obtaining her consent for that purpose I have spoken to Sir Arthur who at my request has promised immediately to write to you And it being a project dear madam a kind one of your own forming I have no fear that it should
be discountenanced by you My only doubt is of delay Let me entreat you my dear mother to remove all impediments with every possible speed and not to lose a moment in writing to me as soon as you and Sir Arthur have arranged the business that I may solicit her from whom I am certain to receive all possible bliss to name a time when suspense shall joyfully end
Do not dear madam let impatience seem a fault in me Remember the lady who she is and all she is and think if her perfections could make the impression which they seem to have done upon your heart what must they have made upon mine I who with all the fire of youth and constitutional eagerness in
consequence of your own wise plan am become a wishing and expecting lover
My sister I am sure is too generous the happiness of her friend and brother being pledged not to join me in the request I now make and I certainly will not forget a kindness which I acknowledge I know not how I shall ever repay
I am dear madam your ever affectionate and dutiful son
C CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
I AM caught Fairfax Spring guns and man traps have been set for me and I am legged Meshed Shot through the heart I have been their puppet They have led me with a string through my nose a fine dance From the farthest
part of all Italy here to London in order to tie me up Noose me with a wife And what is more strange I am thanking and praising and blessing them for it in spite of my teeth I swallow the dose as eagerly as if it had been prepared and sweetened by my own hand and it appears I have had nothing to do in the matter I am a mere automaton and as such they have treated me
Is it not cursed odd that I cannot be angry And yet when I recollect all this I really suspect I am not pleased Damn it To be made their convenient utensil To be packed up their very obedient jack in a bandbox and with a proper label on my back posted with other lumber from city to city over hills and seas to be taken out and looked
at and if not liked returned as damaged ware Ought I to sneak and submit to this Tell me will not the court of honour hoot me out of its precincts Will not the very footmen point after me with a—There goes the gentleman that miss had upon liking Why it is not yet full two months since I was the very prince of high blooded noble sportsmen in the romantic manors domains coverts and coveys of Venus By what strange necromancy am I thus metamorphosed thus tamed
I feel myself a husband by anticipation I am become as pretty a modest wellbehaved sober sentimental gentleman as any you shall see on a summers day I get phrases by rote and repeat them too I say God bless you madam
when the cat sneezes and mumble amen to grace after meat
I told you that I had my catechism to learn and what is worse it is not the questions and commands of good old mother church with all the chancemedley promises and vows of godfathers and godmothers made in my name For which by the bye I think both godfathers and godmothers are fools and knaves but I have the Lord knows how much more to learn than ever I supposed the most outrageous morality could have exacted And I am obliged to answer yes and no and I thank you kindly while my fingers ends are smoking tingling and aching under the stroke of the ferula Yes I Coke Clifton with my sweetmeats in one hand
and my hornbook in the other am whipped till I pule coaxed till I am quiet and sent supperless to bed if I presume to murmur
Why what the devil is the English of all this say you Clifton What does it mean My head is so full of it and I have it so all by rote myself that it had totally escaped me that every word I have uttered must be heathen Greek to you Nay I had forgotten to tell you we have changed the scene which now is London
And as for accidents by sea and land why we have had some of them too Frank Henley has again shewn his dexterity I could eat my fingers to think that he should hit upon a certain and safe mode of acting in a moment
of danger fooner than I But so it is He seems born to cross me We should all have been tossed into the sea and some of us certainly drowned at the very waters edge if we had not been alert He took the command upon himself as imperiously as if it were his by right indisputable and I saw no expedient but to obey or perhaps behold her perish For curse upon me if I know whether any other motive on earth could have induced me to act as his subordinate But as it was I did as he bid me and sat grinding my teeth at the helm while I saw him reap all the honour of taking her in his arms and after her the rest and landing them in safety If Fairfax you can conceive any anguish on earth more excruciating than this why
tell it and you shall be appointed headtormentor to the infernal regions for your ingenuity
What was I going to say—My brain is as murky as the clouds under which I am writing—Oh—I recollect—She had no hand in spreading the trammel into which buzzard like I have been lured It was the scheme of my very good and careful mother for which I have been very sincerely writing her a letter with more thanks than words and of the wise Sir Arthur who wise though he be is not one of the magi She knew nothing of it for some time nor would have known but for my communicative sister and as she scorns deception for by my soul she scorns every thing that is base or derogatory it was
she who informed me of the trap in which I have been taken of which otherwise perhaps I might have remained in eternal ignorance
But still and once again say you what trap What do you mean—
Three words will explain the whole
I have been brought from Naples to Paris not as I supposed to settle a few paltry debts of a deceased uncle but to see fall in love with and be ribhooked to this angel This my good mother as I understand thinks the kindest act of her life—Nay I think so too and yet I am not satisfied And merely I suppose because I feel I have been tricked I will not be the gull of man or woman What is it to me that they mean me well I will judge for myself
It is insolent in any one to pretend to know what befits me better than I myself know
In short I would quarrel and bounce and curse a little if I knew how—But they offer an apology so ample so irresistible that there is no demanding to exchange a short they present Anna St Ives as their excuse and a fico for resentment
And now there is nothing on earth for which I so earnestly wish as to be yoked What think you Fairfax shall I bear my slavish trappings proudly Shall I champ upon the bit and prance and curvet and shew off to advantage I doubt I shall stand in need of a little rough riding And yet I know not let her but pat me on the neck and
whisper two or three kind epithets in my ear and she will guide me as she pleases at least she does No Hopes there are none of my ever again returning to my native wilds and delightful haunts Never was seen so fond a booby as I am and am likely to remain
Nor do I believe I should grumble had she not such a superabundance of discretion She smiles upon me it is true is all gentleness all benevolence but then she does just the same to every body else For my part I see no difference except that I sometimes think she has a kinder smile for Frank Henley than she ever yet had for me But he is just as discreet as herself so that it seems impossible to be jealous
Yet jealous I am Ay and jealous I should be of my cat if she were as ready to purr and rear her back to be stroked by every coarse unwashed hand as by mine
Is it not a cursed shame that when you feel a continual propensity to quarrel with a man he should be such a prince Prim as never to give you an opportunity And why have I this propensity—I know not—Confound the fellow why does he make himself so great a favourite Why does he not contrive to be hated a little And then perhaps I might be induced to love him I dislike to have friendship or affection forced upon me as a duty I abhor duties as I do shackles and dungeons Let me do what I like I leave others to examine whether or no my conduct
be rational tis too much trouble for me
This marriage is never out of my head I wish for it sigh for it pray for it and dread it It may well be said there is no resistiong our destiny If I could but find out the key to her master passion—Well What then—What do I want What do I hope To hope any thing short of the noose is mere madness Beside could I think of living without her—No—I would be eternally in her company for she is eternal novelty she is all the world in one She is herself a million of individuals and not the stale dull repetition of the same which is so horrible to imagination
One thought has struck me—She has
the utmost confidence in what she calls the force of truth It cannot fail That is her constant language I am to be her first convert I have humoured this whim lately except when my irritable fancy breaks loose and runs riot If she have any folly it is this said confidence and whether it be one or be not is more than I have yet been able to determine But she has furnished me with an argument which I might carry to I know not what extent You I urge to her
you need not act with the timid and suspicious caution of your sex You are sure of your principle and to proceed with distrust and fear would prove doubt instead of certainty
She boldly replies—Yes
she is sure and therefore she speaks and behaves with all that undisguise and sincerity which are so uncommon in the world and which some would deem so blameable
She says true she rises totally superior to the petty arts and tricks of her sex I seem to participate the trust which she reposes in herself and the confidence which she appears to place in me when she so openly declares all she thinks and all she means is highly pleasing But if my views were different from what they are I doubt whether madam Confidence might not be brought to lull madam Caution so fast asleep at some lucky moment or another as to suffer me to purloin her key and afterward to
rob her of all her treasure Nor should I fail under certain circumstances to try the experiment
Neither is that intriguing spirit which has so long been in restless habits of continual pursuit entirely idle My first care as usual was to secure the primeminister of my charmer whose name is Laura The hussey is handsome cunning and not without ambition An occasional guinea and a few warm kisses when it was certain that all was safe for caution is necessary have bound her to me The poor fool is fond of me and often finds some ingenious chambermaids excuse to pay me a visit It does not appear that I shall need her agency otherwise here she is properly prepared to be wholly at my devotion Anna
St Ives affords the fancy full employment with any other woman an amour without plot and stratagem attack and defence would be too insipid to be endured
Not but I sometimes find my conscience reproach me for suffering such active talents as mine to lie concealed and unknown being as they are capable of acquiring renown so high When in Italy having even there in that land of artifice rendered myself the superior of all competitors I used to glory in the havoc I should make on my return to England But this the will of fate opposes at least for the present and of what duration my honeymoon is to be is more than any prescience of mine can discover
Write Fairfax and tell me freely your opinion of all this only remember that if you make your calculations and conclusions from any comparison with woman whom you have ever yet seen they will be all error Tell me however what you think and all you think
I forgot to say that twenty thousand pounds is the sum to be paid me down for condescending to accept this jewel I am informed it is wanted to pay off I know not what encumbrances and arrears—Pshaw—I care not—I have never yet troubled myself about wants nor do I wish to begin My father lived fast and died soon Well And is not that better than croaking and crawling over this dirty globe haunted by razors halters and barebones sobbing in your
sleep groaning when awake vegetating in sorrow and dying in the sulks Let me kick my heels in mirth and sunshine Or if clouds intervene let pleasure and fancy create suns of their own Those who like them may find gloom and November enough any day in the year Tell me Fairfax may they not Write and tell me
C CLIFTON
SIR ARTHUR ST IVES TO ABIMELECH HENLEY
London Grosvenor Street
HONEST ABY
WE are once more arrived in England for which I am not sorry Though I cannot say that I repent my journey into France My former suspicions are confirmed I had visited the country before but at that time my taste was not
formed I did not then understand laying out and improving as I do at present I had heard that the French had begun to imitate our best gardens tolerably well but I have seen some of those that are in most fame and what are they to WenbourneHill—No no Aby—I am now convinced that as they say of their Paris there is but one WenbourneHill
I do not know when the family will return to the country The young people wish to enjoy the diversions and pleasures of the town and I rather suppose we shall stay here all the winter Perhaps we may take a jaunt or two between this and the meeting of parliament Not that any such plan is yet settled And as for me I shall be down with
you occasionally as affairs shall require I shall take great delight in once again treading over all my grounds and walks and dells and in visiting places that are never out of my mind
I cannot forget the hermitage and the grotto and the wilderness of which the moment you mentioned them I had formed so charming and so excellent a plan The picture clings to me as it were and it grieves me to give it up But so it must be
However as I say I shall come down more than once and for my part I wonder how these young unthinking people can prefer the dirty streets of London to all the delights and riches of nature and of art which may be said to
be waiting for and inviting them at WenbourneHill
I am very glad to find honest Abimelech that money is so certainly to be had But you were always intimate with the warm old fellows that provide themselves plentifully with what you so aptly call the wherewithalls You have followed their example and learned to increase your own store I am glad of it and am pleased to find you do not forget your first and best friends I must own Abimelech that you have always appeared to me to understand your situation very properly and to pay respect where it was due I have seen your proud upstart stewards carry their heads as high as their masters Ay and instead
of studying their tempers and humouring them as it was their duty have been surly and always ready with their ifs and ands and objections and advice As if it were any concern of theirs what a gentleman shall please to do with his money But you Aby have known how to comport yourself better of which I believe you have no cause to repent
As to the entail as you say it must be docked I know no remedy And since my son is so positive and determined to stickle for a good bargain why we must do the best we can
I was once sorry at his resolving never to marry but I think that is partly over now I care little about the matter My daughters son will be as much my grandchild as his son would have been and as
for names they may easily be changed I am certain were any body to ask me which is the wisest my son or my daughter I should not stop a moment to consider about that
Ay ay She is my own child Every body used to tell me when she was a baby how like me she was
She has some of her mothers features too who as you well know Aby was a very good sort of an excellent kind of a lady and very much respected ay very much Indeed the greatest fault of Lady St Ives was that she would not always be of my opinion But we are none of us perfect If it were not for that one thing I really should think my daughter a young lady of more good sense and good taste and indeed every
thing of that kind than any young person I was ever acquainted with but she too is a declared enemy to planning and improving It is very strange and I can only say there is no accounting for these things
My son however knows as little of the matter as she does nay I believe less And as to other kinds of knowledge he is a child to her It delights me to hear her talk and debate points and chop logic with your Frank who is one of her own sort and with Mr Clifton the young gentleman whom I intend for my son in law I gave you an account in my last Aby that the thing was in expectation and it is now as good as concluded I have written to Mrs Clifton the lawyer is ordered to make a
rough sketch of marriage articles and every thing will be got ready while my attorney is preparing the necessary deeds down in the country according to your instructions and you are raising the money
Be sure however honest Aby to make as good a bargain for me as you can I know money is not to be had without paying for it and I trust to you not to suffer me to pay too dearly Better security you know Aby cannot be offered and I begin to feel my improvements excepted which indeed I hold to be inestimable that I am not so rich as I was fifteen years ago But as my son means never to marry and as the families of Clifton and St Ives are to be united in one I have no doubt some
time or another before I die of seeing every thing retrieved though I grant there are heavy mortgages and other impediments to overcome
Pray has my son told you what sum he expects If not endeavour to learn and let me know Though on second thoughts you need not for I hear he is to be in town next week He must recollect the estate of eight hundred ayear of which he has lately taken such violent possession But he is a dissipated young man and recollects nothing but his pleasures
I always said Aby you were a man of sense and you are very right in thinking I cannot do too much for my daughter I hope to contrive to leave Wenbourne Hill her own It is a rich
spot And though she be an economist and no friend to what she thinks a waste of money in improvements yet I am sure at my request she will not be guilty of what I may well call sacrilege and pull down my temples and dedicated groves and relics of art and ruins nor as my son would destroy with a Gothic hand as the poet says and tear away beauties which it would rend my heartstrings not to suppose durable as I may say for ages I would have my name and my taste and my improvements be long remembered at Wenbourne Hill I delight in thinking it will hereafter be said—
Ay Good old Sir Arthur did this Yonder terrace was of his forming These alcoves were built by him He raised
the central obelisk He planted the grand quincunx
And ah Aby if we could but add
He was the contriver of yonder charming wilderness
I then should die in peace
Let me beg good abimelech that you would write your thoughts in as plain and straight forward a manner as you can for I assure you I have been very much puzzled with some parts of your last letter which I cannot yet say that I understand In some places it is very plain that you hint at Mr Clifton and wish me not to dally with him and as I know you have my interest at heart and speak in a style at which no gentleman can be offended why I rather thank than blame you for your desire to give good advice Though I must say Aby
that I do not think I have any need of it I am mistaken if I could not advise others I wish all the world would be governed by my plans and principles Thats a favourite word with my daughter Aby and a very apt one
I once took some delight in such things I mean in what is called polite learning Aby Indeed I was remarkably fond of Ovids Metamorphoses But then as I did not like to puzzle myself with the Latin I read Garths or Rowes or Popes or I dont know whose translation And I do believe it was that and a visit to Lord Cobhams which first made me study taste and improvement Nothing is wanting but riches Aby to proceed to much greater lengths than any we have yet thought of
What richness of imagination is there in Ovid What statues might we form from the wonderful tales which he relates Niobe at the head of the canal changing into stone To be sure we should want a rock there Then on one side Narcissus gazing at himself in the clear pool with poor Echo withering away in the grove behind King Cygnus in the very act of being metamorphosed into a swan on the other It would be so apropos you know a swan and a canal and king Cygnus And then at the further end Daphne with her arms and legs sprouting into branches and her hair all laurel leaves
You cannot imagine Aby all the fancies which came into my head the other day when I happened to lay my
hand on Tookes Pantheon which brought all these old stories fresh to memory
But as I was saying good Aby write your thoughts as plainly as you can for I sometimes did not know whom you were talking of and there were one or two places which made me think you wish something should be done for your son Frank And indeed he is a very deserving and a very fine young fellow and I have been thinking it would not be amiss since he has really made himself a gentleman if we were to purchase him an ensigns commission What say you to it honest Aby He would make a fine officer A brave bold figure of a man And who knows but in time he might come to be a general ay and
command armies For he fears nothing He has lately saved us a dipping nay and for aught I know a drowning too and we really should do something for him for he is a great favourite and a very good young man However I thought it best to mention the matter first to you and will expect your answer
A ST IVES
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
I MUST write dear Louisa My heart feels as if it were estranged by silence and thinks it has a thousand things to repeat though when it comes to enquire what they seem as if they had all vanished Not but I have a
little incident to relate which interests us both the Dramatis Personae being as usual Clifton Frank Henley and the friend of my Louisa
We yesterday paid a visit to my aunt Wenbourne at her summer villa of Richmond But I ought to premise that I am sorry to see Clifton again looking on Frank Henley with uneasiness and a kind of suspicion that might almost be called jealousy
Having consulted Sir Arthur I mentioned it as a pleasant excursion to Clifton and added as soon as Frank Henley should come I would desire him to hold himself in readiness Sir Arthur was present and Clifton in a pouting kind of manner whispered me—
Can we never go any where
without that young fellow dogging us at the heels
I smiled it off rapped him on the knuckles with my thimble told him he was naughty and said we must not suffer merit to think itself neglected Clifton began to sing Britons strike home which he soon changed to Rule Britannia sure tokens that he was not pleased for these are the tunes with which he always sings away his volatile choler But one of the columns on which I raise my system is a determination to persist in the right Frank Henley was therefore invited and accompanied us
Clifton endeavoured to pout but as I did not in the least change my good humour knowing how necessary it was rather to increase than diminish it he
could not long hold out and soon became as cheerful and as good company as usual and his flow of spirits and whimsical combinations are very exhilarating
After dinner my good old aunt presently got to wordy wars with Frank in which as you may suppose she had little chance of victory But she called in Clifton to be her auxiliary and he fell into the same pettish halfhaughty halfcontemning kind of manner in which he had so improperly indulged previous to the accident of the lake in France I looked at him he understood me and endeavoured but rather awkwardly to change his tone
The conversation continued and he was again becoming warm and while
Frank was laying down the law to my aunt at which I could perceive his tongue tingled I took an opportunity to warn him to beware for that I had more than one crow to pluck with him already
However as the best and securest mode was from the temper of the parties to put an end to the conversation I rose and proposed a walk and my proposal was accepted
I was particularly cautious to say as little to Frank as I could purposely that Clifton might have no retort upon me though a part of my plan is to accustom him to see me just to the merits of Frank without indulging any unworthy suspicions But this I did not think a fit occasion for such experiments
We returned to town and I purposed when Clifton should come to pay me his morning visit next day to read him a gentle lecture Of this he was aware and feeling as I suppose that he should make a bad serious defence knew a comic one would better serve his turn for his fancy and humour appear to be inexhaustible
The first thing he did when he entered the room was to fall down on his knees like a child to his schoolmistress holding his hands pressed flatly together with a piteous face and a Pray pray I laughed and told him he was a very bad child His Pray pray was repeated with another strangely pleasant contortion of countenance But I still answered—No indeed—I should not
forgive him till I had made him truly sensible of his fault On which he rose from his knees pulled out a paper fools cap which he had been carving and fashioning for himself fixed it on his head and placed himself with a new kind of penitential countenance in a corner continuing such quaint mimickry of a child in sorrow that there was no resisting fair and downright laughter
I still made two or three attempts to begin to argue but they were ineffectual they were all answered with some new antics and I was obliged at last to say—
Well well I find you are sensible how much you deserve punishment and therefore I dare say you will take care not to offend in future
After this he gave the whole discourse a comic and a witty cast embellishing it with all the flights of his rich and strong imagination on purpose to avoid the possibility of remonstrance This is a certain sign that it must be very painful to him unless indeed we allow for the pleasure which he cannot but take in exhibiting the activity of his mind Yet painful I am sure it is Contradiction is a thing to which he has not been accustomed He has no doubt led the opinions of his companions partly by conforming to and strengthening their favourite prejudices though chiefly by his superior talents and to be too often encountered by any one whose intellects are more clear and consistent than his
own is a kind of degradation to which he scarcely knows how to submit
With respect to Frank Henley whenever he is pleading the cause of truth he is inflexible I have sometimes indeed known him silent when he was hopeless of doing good but at others I have heard him blame himself for this and assert that we never ought to despair for that truth no matter how violently opposed at the moment would revive in the mind and do her office when the argument and the anger should be wholly forgotten
I believe the observation to be just But he is no common thinker No I am almost persuaded he is the first of human beings Equal nay I have sometimes
even thought superior to Louisa herself
As you perceive dear friend of my heart that I know you too well to fear offending you I am sure you will do me the justice at the same time to confess that I do not seek to flatter
Thus dear Louisa you perceive we do not perhaps make quite so swift a progress as we could wish but we must be satisfied The march of knowledge is slow impeded as it is by the almost impenetrable forests and morasses of error Ages have passed away in labours to bring some of the most simple of moral truths to light which still remain overclouded and obscure How far is the world at present from being convinced that it is not only possible but perfectly
practicable and highly natural for men to associate with most fraternal union happiness peace and virtue were but all distinction of rank and riches wholly abolished were all the false wants of luxury which are the necessary offspring of individual property cut off were all equally obliged to labour for the wants of nature and for nothing more and were they all afterward to unite and to employ the remainder of their time which would then be ample in the promotion of art and science and in the search of wisdom and truth
The few arts that would then remain would be grand not frivolous not the efforts of cunning not the prostitution of genius in distress to flatter the vanity of insolent wealth and power or the depraved
taste of an illjudging multitude but energies of mind uniting all the charms of fancy with all the severe beauties of consistent truth
Is it not lamentable to be obliged to doubt whether there be a hundred people in all England who were they to read such a letter as this would not immediately laugh at the absurd reveries of the writer—But let them look round and deny if they can that the present wretched system of each providing for himself instead of the whole for the whole does not inspire suspicion fear disputes quarrels mutual contempt and hatred Instead of nations or rather of the whole world uniting to produce one great effect the perfection and good of all each family is itself a state bound to
the rest by interest and cunning but separated by the very same passions and a thousand others living together under a kind of truce but continually ready to break out into open war continually jealous of each other continually on the defensive because continually dreading an attack ever ready to usurp on the rights of others and perpetually entangled in the most wretched contentions concerning what all would neglect if not despise did not the errors of this selfish system give value to what is in itself worthless
Well well—Another century and then—
In the mean time let us live in hope and like our worthy hero Frank not be silent when truth requires us to speak
We have but to arm ourselves with patience fortitude and universal benevolence
Pardon this prattle—The heart will sometimes expand and it is then weak enough to plead that the effusions of friendship claim attention and respect This is among the prejudices of our education and I know not who has hitherto overcome them all I can only say dear Louisa it is not her who is most affectionately your
A W ST IVES
P S
Clifton is quite successful with my relations he has won the heart of my aunt Every moment that he was absent was lavished in his praise
He was a handsome man prodigiously
handsome exceedingly well bred a man of great understanding and what was more a man of family His pretensions were well founded it was a very proper connection and was very much approved by her
Nor did the good old lady omit various sarcastic hints glancing at Frank and which were not softened by the opposition he made to her opinions But he is too great a lover of truth to betray it for the sake of self and she too much an admirer of her own prejudices not to be offended at contradiction Once more Louisa we are the creatures that education has made us and consequently I hope we shall hereafter be wiser and better
LOUISA CLIFTON TO ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES
RoseBank
AN odd circumstance my dear Anna has happened here of which I think it necessary to inform you immediately
Honest Aby has again been with us He came and enquired for my mamma Disappointment chagrin and illhumour were broadly legible on his countenance
He talked in his odd dialect which I cannot remember accurately enough to repeat said he had just received a letter from Sir Arthur from which he understood something that to him appeared to be matter of great surprise which was that Sir Arthur intended to bestow your hand on my brother and in a half submissive half authoritative way wanted to know whether it were true and whether my mamma knew any thing of the business
She acknowledged that such were the intentions of the two families and he answered that for his part he thought they might as well think no more of the matter muttering the words wherewithal and coal
Mrs Clifton desired him to be explicit
but he continued in half sentences repeating that the ready was not so easy to be had and rhino was a scarce commodity Neither could he tell what might happen There were foreclosures and docking of entails and many things to be settled and cash must come from where it could be got but not from him he believed
My mamma mild as she is was obliged to check his growling inclination to be insolent and then he had his whole beadroll of fine words with which he has so often tickled the ear of Sir Arthur at his tongues end and ran them off with his usual gracious and very humble obedient volubility
Had I not received your last his discourse would have been more enigmatical to me but as it was I understood him tolerably well The bitterness of gall is at his heart The greatness of his visible disappointment shews how high his hopes had been raised and I suspect he is determined they shall not be very easily pulled down For after having acted all his abject humility he could not forbear again to murmur over his threats as he was leaving the room and there was an air of selfsufficient confidence so apparent in his face that I am persuaded the obstacles he has the power to raise are much greater than you my dear friend have ever supposed
I cannot describe to you my best Anna how deeply my mind is agitated at times concerning this marriage I censure myself very severely for seeming to indulge improper fears one minute and perhaps the next am more angry with myself for not disinterestedly pleading the cause of Frank Henley If there could be a miracle in nature I should think his being the son of honest Aby one What can I say My doubts are too mighty for me I know not how or what to advise The reasons you have urged are indeed weighty yet they have never made an impression so deep upon my mind as not to take flight and leave their opponent arguments in some sort the victors
Nor can I be more angry with myself
on any occasion than I am at this moment I distress and trouble you with my fears when I ought to keep them to myself unless I could determine whether they were or were not well founded They are even increased by the recollection that in all probability Clifton could now much less bear disappointment than the strongminded and generous Frank
Then my Anna Should ill happen to her from an undertaking the motive of which is so worthy so dignified what should I say Should misfortune come how could I excuse myself for having neglected to dissuade and to urge such reasons as have appeared to me the strongest What could I say but rePeat the diffidence of my mind the want
of full and satisfactory conviction and the fear of mistake
The only buckler with which I oppose these insurrections of reason is the omnipotence of truth and Anna St Ives And when I recollect this my terrors are hushed and I think her sure of conquest
The very affirmative tokens which Aby displayed of his own consequence convince me however that there will be delay How Clifton will submit to it is to be seen His letter to my mamma is all impatience and expectation But I have talked with her and she appears to be determined that nothing can be done till Sir Arthur is ready to pay the sum he proposed
My Anna will not be very ready to
attribute this to avarice for no one can think more highly of her than Mrs Clifton does But my father at his death left the family in absolute distress from which she has retrieved it by her economy and good sense retrieved it that is in part for there are still many heavy debts to pay and mortgages to be cleared Her plans have been severe and of long continuance deeply thought on and perseveringly executed To convince her that any part of them ought to be relinquished scarcely appears possible Nor am I sure that obliged as we are to conform to the present system of things they are not all just Beside which she is not in a state of health to support the fatigue of argument or the pain of contradiction
She likewise considers Sir Arthur as a weak old gentleman who if this opportunity were abandoned would perhaps never have the spirit or the power hereafter to do his daughter justice and she thinks that for your sake she ought not in the least to relax Should you my dear Anna reason differently I am still certain that you will reason charitably
With respect to my brother it may perhaps be fortunate should the suspense afford you time for further trials and we may have cause to rejoice at the accident which had checked the precipitate impatience of passion
Though I expect a letter from you by tomorrows post I think this of too much consequence to suffer any delay
I shall therefore seal it and send it off immediately
Heaven bless and eternally preserve my dear Anna
L CLIFTON
ABIMELECH HENLEY TO SIR ARTHUR ST IVES
WenbourneHill
Most onnurable Sir my ever onnurd Master
YOUR onnur has a thrown me quite into a quandary I couldnt have thoft it For why My thofts were all in the mercifool praise and glorification of your onnur and I had a done nothink but say how good and gracious your onnur
had a bin to me and mine But I do find a savin and exceptin your ever onnurable onnur tis all a gull queerum Whereof the face of affairs is quite transmogrified And so ast for raisin the wind of twenty thousand pounds I find the think is neither komparissuble nur a parallel to common sense For why It is not to be had A mans money is his own your onnur and when a has got it theres as good law for he as for a dooke Always a savin and exceptin your most exceptionable onnur as in duty boundin For as I wus a sayin your onnur when a man has a got the super nakullums who shall take it from him Because why it is his own
If so be as the whats and the whys and the wherefores had a bin a forth
cummin why then the shiners might a seen the light of day mayhap But a mans son why as his son as his own as his goods and chattels and law and rite bein of the race of his own begettin feedin and breedin Whereby I cannot but say love me love my dog Always a savin and exceptin your onnurable onnur as aforesaid
And ast for the rhino why some do save and some do spend and some do hold and some do let go and some do have and some do want Whereupon if so be as he as a has the most a may be as good as another Why not Always a savin and exceptin your ever onnurable onnur as aforesaid But when so be as a man has the wherewithalls why a let him begin to hold up his head I say
Why not For why It is the omnum gathurum that makes the man And if I do a doff my hat to my betters there a be and a bin the whats and the whys and the wherefores for it But I can a doff my hat or I can a keep it on my head and mayhap a can begin to look my betters in the face as well as another Why not Always a savin and exceptin your ever exceptionable onnur as in duty boundin
And ast for famalies and names I axes nothink about they A tell me who has the most kole I axes that Mayhap Henley may be as good a name as Clifton And ast for famalies why it is notorious that Adam and Eve wus the begettin of us all always a savin and exceptin your onnurable
onnur Whereof a theres an end of that
Whereby your onnurable onnur wus a menshinnin the mortgages and of a seein of every think a treeved and settled afore your onnur do die But as thinks do be likely to turn out why every man for himself and God for us all There be foreclosures mayhap that a be to be thoft of For why There a be wheels within wheels
If so be indeed as if thinks had a turned up trumps why then ay it would a bin summut all smooth and go softly and there might a behappened to be sunshine and fair weather at WenbourneHill For why Every think would then a bin clear and above board Thinks would a then a bin fafe and sure to all
sides and your onnurable onnur would mayhap a seen that your onnur would a lost nothink by the bargain For why Missee my younk lady might a paradventered to have had all in the upshot and an ever gracious and glorious and mercifool my younk lady missee she would a then a bin Whereby as matters be likely to turn out why thinks must a take their course Thof a mayhap folks may go further and fare worse Whereof if so be as lives have a bin saved by land and by water and a mans son is thoft to be somebody why mayhap a may not a take it so kindly to be chouse flickurd
For my part I thoft as thof all thinks had a bin as good as settled and that in all partikillers missee my younk lady of
ever mercifool affability would a bin left to please herself Why not When precious lives have a bin saved and when there a bin shootins and leapins and swimmins and sousins I say as aforesaid why thats a summut and a mans own son mayhap wont a like to be flamdudgind
And so as to mortgages to be paid off your onnurable onnur why mayhap thats a sooner said nur done For I say as aforesaid that it seems as if whereby if it had not a bin for some folks some folks would a now a bin in their salt water graves always a savin and exceptin your ever exceptionable onnur as in duty boundin Whereby take me ritely your onnurable onnur I means nothink amiss If thinks be a skew
whift why it be no fault of mine It is always a savin and exceptin of your onnurable onnur being as I be ready to glorify to the whole world of all your futur lovin kindness of blessins of praise a done and a testified to me and mine
Whereof as to frippery jerry my gingle red coats and cockades why they be nothink of my seekin For why They be the betokens of the warnins of the signs of the bloody cross of antichrist and the whore of Babilon and of the dispensation of the kole and the squitter squanderin of the wherewithalls and the supernakullums Whereby an honest mans son may become to be bamboozild and addle brained and foistee fubbd belike as finely as his neighbours So that if so be as I have a
bin a ponderaitin that there a be nothink to be got by it Always a savin and exceptin of the blessins of praise and mercifool glory of your ever exceptionable onnurable onnurs lovin kindness and goodness and every think of that there umbel and very submissive obedient kind as in duty boundin
Witch is all at present beginnin and endin to the everlastin power of almighty joys eternal umbelly beggin leave to superscribe meself
ABIMELECH HENLEY
ABIMELECH HENLEY TO FRANK HENLEY
WenbourneHill
WHY what be all a this here What is it that a be about dolt Heres a rumpus Heres a fine to do You be a pretty squire Nicodemus Nincompoop You a son of my own begettin feedin and breedin You feeze the fulhams Why they would a draw your i
teeth for ee Marry come fairly You the jennyalogy of my own body and loins No by lady And so squire my lord Timothy Doodle has a bin flib gibberd and queerumd after all Thof if so be as notwithstandin a that Missee my younk lady had as good as a bin playin at catch me come kiss me and all in the dark withn and thof I had a sifflicated the Sir Dandle Dunderpate a here a do stand a suckin his thumbs Thof so be as how I told him to make up to Missee and the twenty thousand pounds What a did nt I put words into your mouth as good as a ready butterd as I may say What a did nt I give ee all your pees and cues Because as why I did a know a wus a quaumee kintlin And so a has played with the
mouse and has a lost it at last A fine kettle of fish as made ont Whereof forsooth so as that now as that all othe fats in the fire why I must a be set to catch the colt if I can Why ay to be sure Whereby if so be as the Gaby goose may now go barefoot And a whose fault is that No A would nt a be akin to a good estate not he
But harkee me chit Mind what I be about to say to ee Simon the simple and mayhap thinks may become to be komparissuble and parallel to the yellow hammers and the chink for all of all this here rig royster For why I can put a spoke in the wheel of the marriage act and deed Madam Clifton wonnot a budge a finger to the signin and sealin of her gratification of applause whereby
as if so be as that the kole a be not a forth cummin down on the nail head And where now might Timothy Tipkin sifflicate that it may behappen to be for to come from Pummel thy pumkin and a tell me that Peter Grievous Where but out of my pouche Gaby That is I first havin and holdin the wherewithalls and the whys and the wherefores Do you take me now So that forsooth some folks may behappen to cry peccavi
Whereby mind what I do tell ee For why Ive as good as a told Sir Arthur the wind is a not to be raised for any of a sitch of a flammbite of a tale of a tub Whereby I a toldn a bit of my mind And if so be as if a will wince a mayhap it may come to pass that I can kick
A shall find I was not a bred and a born and a begotten yesterday An a champ upon it letn An a will run rusty mayhap a may belike to get his head in a hedge So mind what I do say to ee and tell em that they may a behappen to find that your father is somebody and that you are his son A tell em that
So do you strike up to Missee boldly Mind what ee be at and let em like it or leave it For if so be as when a man has a got the Marygolds why then letn begin to speak for himself Why not
Whereby I have now once again given the costard monger his pees and his cues So that if so be as if a do find that sweet sauce be good for goose why letn a give his tongue an oilin But if so be as a do find a be Sir Arthur Crabvarjus
othe high ropes why then says you look ee me says you honest Aby is my father and when a man has a got the wherewithalls why a begins to be somebody and mayhap as as good as another A tell em that
And so no more at present a savin and exceptin of the all bountifool glory of the everlastin praise of joys eternal livin and hopin for time to repent us of all our manifold sins and of a dyin in peace and charity with all men Whereby we shall be sure to partake of the resurrection of the just sheep and of the virgin oil in our lamps and of the martyrs and of the profits and of the saints everlastin rest
ABIMELECH HENLEY
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London Grosvenor Street
OLIVER it is not half an hour since I ended writing one of the most undutiful and bitter Philippics that ever was addressed by a son to his father I say undutiful because this wise world has decreed that to abhor reprove and avoid
vice in a father instead of being the performance of a duty is offensive to all moral feeling
I have just received a letter from him chiding and blaming me with his usual acrimony for a supposed want of cunning and for not aiding him in what I perceive now to be the design he has most at heart which is my marriage with the divine Anna He has almost disgusted me with myself for having though ineffectually endeavoured to aid him so well Nay I have been tempted to shew his letter to Sir Arthur But on recollection I have thrown the Philippic I mentioned into the fire and have determined on silence for I perceive harm that may result from a contrary conduct but no good To swerve to the
right or the left from the direct path of principle and truth because of the selfish narrow and unwise views of others is to be weak and culpable
What indeed has relationship to do with truth No human ties can bind us to error and while we rigorously act according to the rules of truth as far as we know them the comments mistakes disapprobation and even resentment of relation friend or father ought to be disregarded
I must own however I have still the folly to feel additional grief that errors of so mean so selfish so dishonest a nature should have taken such firm possession of the mind of my father and I am afraid I could support them better in the person of another
Having determined not to write to him I have written to thee to give vent and relief to these feelings Of course thou wilt tell me if thou seest any reason which I have not discovered why I ought to communicate the contents of his letter to Sir Arthur whom he vaunts of having in his power and whom he is determined not to supply with money for the projected marriage with Clifton My conviction is that to shew this letter would but increase their mutual anger and render compliance on my fathers part whose temper I know still less probable than it is if less it can be
Adieu
F HENLEY
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
I WRITE at present to my dear Louisa that by writing I may divert the perturbation of my mind But I must begin calmly for I have so much to say that I scarcely know what to say first Our mutual conjectures concerning honest Aby are in
part verified I conclude thus not from having seen any more of his letters but from knowing more have been received which instead of having been shewn me have if I do not mistake thrown Sir Arthur into some of the most serious reflections he ever experienced I never knew him so grave thoughtful and pensive as he has been for some days—
My brother too—But more of him by and by
Observing the efforts of reflection and desirous of aiding alleviating or increasing them as should be most prudent I took an opportunity after breakfast when Sir Arthur and I were alone of speaking to him and we had the following dialogue
I think sir you seem more thoughtful lately than usual I am afraid there is something disturbs you Can I—
No no—Nothing—Not much Worldly matters which you do not understand
I am far from wishing sir to intrude into your private concerns except they were such as might relate to me and—
Mere money matters child of which you have no knowledge—We paused Sir Arthur seeming as if his mind laboured with a subject which he knew not how to begin—Where is Mr Henley
Retired to his apartment sir This is his time of day for study
He is a very learned young man
Not so learned I believe sir as wise
Are not they the same thing
I think not sir
Well then a very wise young man—You think him so do you not Anna
I do sir
You have a very high opinion of him
I have sir
Perhaps a higher than of any other young gentleman with whom you are acquainted
I am indeed afraid sir I have never seen his equal
Humph—You—You are not sparing of your praise
You asked me a question sir and would not have me guilty of equivocation or falsehood
No child I am pleased with your sincerity and I hope and expect you
will be equally sincere in every thing you say
Of that sir you may be assured
What are your reasons for thinking so exceedingly well of Mr Henley
My reasons sir
Yes your reasons
I own I am a little surprised at this question from you sir who have been a witness to so many of his virtues and their effects
I then briefly recapitulated the progress of Frank from a child in virtue insisting on the numerous proofs of which we so lately had been witnesses I recounted the histories of the highwayman and of Peggy and her husband the adventure of the lake and the protection
we found from his skill strength and courage at Deal not forgetting the attendant incidents of each nor neglecting to give such brief but strong touches as feeling dictated
I must own he is a very extraordinary young man
Yet we can know but a part of the good effected by a mind so active and so virtuous Though I perhaps know more than you sir
Ay—What Let me hear
You think me partial already sir
No no Let me hear
The very night we arrived at Paris he prevented Mr Clifton and the Count de Beaunoir from fighting a duel
Indeed
Yet never mentioned it nor perhaps
ever would had not we afterward met with the Count at the Chateau de Villebrun
That was very odd
Nay more sir but a day or two before that he saved the life of Mr Clifton he had submitted to the insult of a blow from him rather than fight a duel
A blow—
He does not want courage sir you are convinced
No no—It is what he calls one of his principles not to fight duels—He is a very extraordinary young man—And not I think much like his father
As opposite sir as day and night grace and deformity virtue and vice
You think but indifferently of Abimelech
I think very ill of him sir I think him selfish cunning covetous and dishonest
Dishonest
In the eye of equity though not perhaps of the law
Why did not you tell me your opinion sooner
I did sir
I do not remember it
No sir it made no impression because you did not think it true
May be so—And you do not find any of these bad qualities in the son
Bad—If all the highest gifts of intellect if memory perspicuity perception and genius added to all the virtues wisdom benevolence philanthropy and selfdenial if to be the active
friend of man and the declared enemy of error and of that alone if these can entitle him to esteem admiration reverence and praise why then esteem admiration reverence and praise are justly his due
You are warm in your encomiums
Indeed sir I think I am cold
How so
Because my encomiums are so very much beneath his deserts
Anna—Sir Arthur assumed a very serious tone and look
Proceed sir—Do not be afraid of questioning me You shall find my dear father a child that will answer truly affectionately and I hope dutifully
I kissed his hand pressed it and wet
it with an unwilling tear The impassioned heart Louisa will sometimes rebel against the cold apathy of reason but such revolt is but of short duration
Are you aware Anna of the state of your own affections
I think so sir
You think
Well then I am certain
You say Mr Henley has no equal
In my opinion none sir
Look you there
But do you think sir I will not emulate the virtues I admire or that because I have a just sense of his worth I will trespass against my duties to the world my sex my family and my father
Anna—Child—The tears stood in Sir Arthurs eyes He stretched out both hands and I flew to his arms—After a short interval of silence Sir Arthur proceeded Tell me Anna What are your thoughts of Mr Clifton
I think him sir a very extraordinarily gifted gentleman
But not a Mr Henley
Not at present sir Time I hope will make him one
No child never
Why so sir
I cannot tell why but I am sure it never will They are two very different men
Mr Clifton sir has uncommon powers of mind
May be so I suppose so I only say
they are very different men Their tempers are different their opinions their manners every thing
I do not imagine sir they will ever exactly resemble each other but I think myself sure they will continually approach
Indeed
Yes sir
May be so but I own I doubt it Mr Clifton is a gentleman both by birth and education
That I own sir may be a great disadvantage but—
Disadvantage child
Our conversation was here interrupted Louisa by a letter brought me from
my brother Read it and judge of what I felt
Dear Sister
I AM a ruined man unless I could command a sum of money which it is impossible for me to raise I last night lost three thousand pounds upon honour which I am totally unable to pay And what is worse I did not lose it to a gentleman but to a sharper who the very last throw he made let a third die fall upon the table But this is of no avail he is an unprincipled daring fellow denies any foul play with imprecations and threats and insists on being paid I know you cannot help me to such a sum and I suppose my father will not For my part I can neither pay it nor think of
living under the disgrace and infamy which must follow
EDWARD ST IVES
Sir Arthur saw my agitation and had I been desirous it would have been difficult to have concealed the letter or its contents I shewed it him and his perplexity and pain I believe exceeded mine It was impossible he said for him immediately to pay the money it would greatly distress him at any time It likewise shewed the deplorable state of my brothers affairs The Edgemoor estate every thing gone
Sir Arthur knew not how to act I was in a tremor and could not persuade myself there was any way so safe as that of consulting Frank Henley This I
proposed Sir Arthur instantly acquiesced and he was sent for down After reading the letter the only expedient he said which he could think of was to visit my brother either accompanied by or under the sanction of Sir Arthur My father absolutely refused to go himself but he gave Frank full powers to act for him and as he should think most prudent Before he went he endeavoured to calm our fears saying he thought it impossible if such a rascal as this gambler were properly dealt with but that he must be glad to renounce his claim
Frank is now absent on this desperate business sent by my officiousness to encounter a practised ruffian
What could I do A brother threatening
his own life Yet what is the life of such a brother to that of Frank Henley
I hope he is not in danger I think I was obliged to do as I have done though indeed I am very ill satisfied with myself
The chief purpose of my writing this long dialogue which I had with Sir Arthur was to ward off fears for surely it is but a folly to anticipate misfortune I should else not have written till tomorrow And must I alarm my friend by sending this before I know the result of so dangerous an affair I think I ought not
Clifton has just been with me It
could not long escape his quick penetration that my thoughts were deeply occupied He was earnest with me to accompany him in the evening to see Garrick in Richard III but could not prevail He taxed me with absence of mind and was kindly earnest to know why I was so serious I told him at last it was a family concern and this did but increase his eagerness to know of what nature I was obliged to own he was too impetuous to be trusted at such a critical minute Frank Henley I hoped would effect every thing that could be done
He repeated with great chagrin
Frank Henley—He was sorry not to be thought as worthy of a trust of danger and as zealous for the honour
of the family as even the favourite Frank Henley
I replied my mind was not enough at ease to give a proper answer to such a remark which however was far from a just one
He felt the rebuke and apologized with praises of Frank Henleys prudence and accusations of his own intemperate haste
But wise people knew how to be cool Prudence and wisdom were cold blooded qualities Good or harm of any moment if done by him must be done in a kind of passion It was his temper his nature which he tried in vain to correct Neither was he quite certain that such a temper was not the best at least it was the most open and honest—
I told him he was mistaken in most of these fancies but he seemed not to hear me and went on—
He could not but own he was piqued and almost grieved to find he must despair of meriting the preference and that he was destined to find a rival where rivalship ought perhaps least to be expected
My temper of mind did not permit me to argue with him I could much rather have indulged the woman and burst into tears but I subdued my feelings and could think of no better mode of reproving him than to retire I accordingly withdrew without answering▪ and left him making ineffectual struggles with his pride his consciousness of error and his desire of being
heard and reconciled to himself and me
He told me yesterday he was surprised at not receiving an answer from Mrs Clifton and at the silence of Sir Arthur I made no reply because I had not considered how I could address myself to him with the best effect But I mean when he mentions it again to inform him of the probability of delay I like you my friend think delay rather a fortunate incident than otherwise
But why Louisa should you suppose it necessary to justify the conduct of Mrs Clifton to me I am well acquainted with her virtues and the purity of her intentions Whether I should act with exactly the same caution under the same circumstances is more than I can say
but neither can I say that my prudence and foresight would equal hers—I think I hear Frank Henley I am all impatience and alarm Adieu
A W ST IVES
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London GrosvenorStreet
FRANK has this moment left me He is still in pursuit of this business which is by no means brought to a conclusion He has been with my brother and has met the gambler with whom two very characteristic dialogues have passed
which Frank has repeated with considerable humour My brother was only present at and bore his part in the second The man is a perfect master of his vile trade a practised duellist as expert Frank says in killing of men as in cogging of dice A Hibernian bravo determined to pursue the most desperate means to effect his purpose
Energy in vice or virtue Frank remarks is the characteristic of the Irish It is a noble quality of which no nation perhaps has more if any so much but it is frequently abused by them and made productive of the most hateful effects
Frank was with my brother in his dressingroom when the man came and was shewn into an antichamber by the
servant Edward was sufficiently unwilling to see him and readily agreed to the proposal Frank made of first conversing with him as my brothers friend
Frank accordingly went to him and says he was struck at the sight of the man being much deceived if he be not an old acquaintance I was and still am surprised at what Frank told me but he begged I would suspend my curiosity till he himself should be better satisfied and proceeded with his dialogue
Your name I believe sir is Mr Mac Fane
At your sarvice sir
I am the friend of Captain St Ives
Then to be sure sir you are a gintleman and a man of honour I am a
gintleman and a man of honour mysilf
Do you say that from your conscience sir
From my conscience Ay sir Why not When all my debts due are duly and truly paid why I shall have ten thousand pounds in my pocket
There are people sir heretical enough to suppose that even ten thousand pounds are no absolute proof of honour
No indeed—Why then for those very scrupulous people I have an excellent pair of proof pistols which I believe are absolute enough Becase I would take the odds that they would hit a birds eye flying
Those arguments I own are difficult to withstand
Stand—Faith and if any man shall think proper to stand I will fetch him down—Remember Louisa I am imitating this mans language as delivered by Frank though I believe my memory is tolerably correct But I should be proud to speak a word with your friend because that will be more to the point
He requested me to inform you sir he should be glad if you would delay your visit an hour or two and I think it will be the safest for you I perceive sir are rather warm and his temper as you may imagine cannot be so cool just at present as usual
His temper—Faith sir and the devil
a care care I about his temper And as for warm and cool I can be either or neither or both I have won the money and the Captain must pay it or else dye see sir—
Youll hit the birds eye flying
Ay flying or lying or any way—However I will take a turn and come back by and by I have two or three calls to make on some peers of my acquaintance I am a man of nice honour sir
And you imagine nice though it is that your honour is suspected
By my soul sir I imagine no such thing Becase as why I think it would not be very safe I tell you very seriously sir that I have a sure sacrit to cure any impartinent suspicions of my honour
as I beg you would inform your friend Captain St Ives who being a man of honour himsilf knows what belongs to the business These sir are tender points with every gintleman And so sir I wish you a good morning for the present
Frank says he was desirous of conversing with the man that he might discover his character previous to his concerting any plan of action
After he was gone he endeavoured to lead my brother into a discussion on the state of his affairs But Edward avoided all detail satisfying himself with affirming he was a ruined man and unable to pay the sum He had no objection to meet the fellow in the field though certainly the chances were a hundred to
one in his disfavour He might as well die that way as any other With respect to victory of that there were but little hopes with so expert a ruffian who had practised pistol shooting till he was sure of his mark which my brother had wholly neglected
Frank then enquired at what house the money had been lost and found it had been at one of the common receptacles for gamblers of the fecond order No person was present but the groom porter whom Frank immediately determined to see and went thither for that purpose But on enquiry at the house he found the man had absconded
He returned and had some difficulty to convince my brother that his honour would not suffer by delay for it was
plain that Mr Mac Fane was resolved on immediately pushing the matter to an extreme However on communicating his own conjectures concerning this man of nice honour Edward consented to permit Frank to act in his behalf Frank observes that our men of fashion seem agreed to overlook a portion of insolence from these gamblers under the affectation of despising them which the tamest of the fine gentlemen among them would scarcely brook from each other
In about two hours Mr Mac Fane returned and being introduced to my brother and Frank another conversation very similar to the former ensued The man began
Your servant gintlemen I told you
last night Captain that I would give you a call this morning and as it is an affair in which your honour is concerned why I was determined to be very punctual Becase why you know I am extremely nice and punctual mysilf upon points of honour
I am sorry to be obliged to tell you sir that Captain St Ives neither knows nor owns any such thing and that I have good reason to believe the very reverse
Sir—You— Frank says the man put on the true look of a desperado resolved on mischief if opposed but that after pausing a moment he began with a kind of humorous anger to rub the side of his face as if it were benumbed Faith on recollection I believe
I got a bit of a cold last night which makes me rather dull of hearing
Sir I repeat—
Repate—Boo—There is no occasion to repate at all at all I remember very well that my friend Captain St Ives owes me three thousand guineas and it being a dibt of honour why to be sure he will pay it without any repating about the matter
Sir said my brother give me leave to tell you—
That you will pay me You need not tell me that
Sir—
There never yet was man that refused to pay me but oh The almighty thunder I gave him a resate in full for the dibt I made him repint after his death the day that ever he was born
Theres the door sir said Frank
Faith and I know theres the door sir but wheres the money Captain—That is I dont mane the ready cash that is not to be expected from a gentleman—A bond in these cases you know Captain is customary
Sir theres the door
I find that your friend here is disposed to be a little upon the Captain Copperthorne this morning and so I shall leave you for the present to consider the matter I have no doubt but I shall hear from you Captain in the course of the four and twenty hours It is now full three weeks since I heard the whiz of a bullet and I would advise you as a friend not to waste any of your powder and ball upon the prisent
occasion It would only be a buz and blow by business Captain for by the holy limb of Luke I never yet saw lead that durst look me in the face
We should be glad to be alone sir
Faith sir you may be as bluff as you please but when the Captain is a little cool I shall expict to receive a bit of a message from him or may I never look on the bald pate of the blessed Peter but he shall receive a bit of a message from me And so once more gintlemen good morning
Frank did not lose a moment after he was gone but hastened home first to inform us of his proceedings thus far and next to make the researches on which he is now absent Here therefore my dear Louisa I must pause and once
again subscribe myself most affectionately
A W ST IVES
P S
I have reason to believe that Clifton is more seriously offended than I ever knew him before When I refused going to the play with him he persisted in saying I might change my mind before night and that he would come again in that hope His manner of parting with me after being told Frank was entrusted with a business which we had not dared confide to him was as I have described unusual and accompanied with more coldness and reserve than either of us had ever before assumed It is now eight oclock and I have not seen him since If he have resolution enough
to keep away the whole evening which I suspect he will have the proof of the truth of my conjectures will be indubitable
I know not when he comes to hear the business whether he will be convinced that he was less proper to transact it than Frank otherwise I should not be sorry could he but certainly feel himself wrong for it is by a repetition of such lessons that the good we intend must be effected
Be it as it will let us neither recede nor slacken our endeavours I suspect that every worthy task must be a task of difficulty and often of danger
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
FRANK is returned and as usual crowned with success
I had been puzzling myself to no purpose concerning Mr Mac Fane being one of our old acquaintance It appears he was the accomplice of the highwayman Webb the brother of Peggy
who was shot by Frank at Turnham Green He forebore to tell me in part because he had not time to connect and relate the grounds of his suspicion though his chief reason was lest a whisper heard by Laura or any other should have betrayed and overturned his whole scheme
He went immediately to question Mrs Clarke concerning her nephew She knew not what was become of him for after having determined to go abroad he changed his mind and being reproved and discountenanced by her he had forborne his visits She had even refused to hear his name mentioned But she believed her niece Peggy had some knowledge of him though she was not certain
Frank thought proper to confide in Mrs Clarke and they immediately went in quest of the niece From her they learned that he had been promoted to the office of groomporter at a gambling house and in fact he proved to be the very man who had been present at the transaction between Edward and Mr Mac Fane
Peggy was next questioned concerning his present hidingplace She was confused she stammered and trembled Was not her brother in danger Could she be sure no harm would come to him—At last however the mild and humane reasoning of Frank and the authority of Mrs Clarke subdued her terrors—He was in the house
It seems the moment he knew it was
Captain St Ives my brother whom Mr Mac Fane had been plundering he refused to appear or have any further concern in the affair and being violently threatened by the gambler who wanted to force him to come forward as his witness he concealed himself for fear not knowing to what excess so desperate a man might be carried by his passions He and Peggy had just been debating on the propriety of appearing to bear testimony in my brothers behalf but were too much alarmed to decide
Frank lost no time He took the man with him in the carriage and hastened to my brothers apartments where he left him and immediately drove away to Bowstreet to procure the assistance of
the police Previous to this Mr Mac Fane having received some intimation that there was danger had written to my brother The following is a copy of his letter and no bad specimen of the man
Sir
I FIND you think that there is a bit of a blunder in this business and that you doubt the doctors I understand too that Webb the groom porter is under obligations to your honourable family for which raison the lying spalpeen pretends that hesmoaked a bale of Fulhams—To be sure it is all a mistake—I am a man of honour and you Captain are a man of honour also for which I give up the coal to your ginerosity in raison
whereof hush is the word And so in that case I remain your most obadient humble sarvant But if not why the bull dogs must bark
PHELIM MAC FANE
Is it not a pity Louisa that so much courage and ability should be perverted to such vile ends The man by means of the wealth he had so rapidly collected in this manner had secured more than one spy among the Bowstreet runners This we learned from Peggys brother and it is confirmed by the event for he has forsaken all his former haunts and it is conjectured is either gone off for the continent or which is more probable is lying concealed till he can discover how far he is in danger He was constantly provided with disguises has been
to sea and is intimately acquainted with the manners of the vulgar so that were any strict search made he would not easily be caught But he need not fear his supposed enemy takes no delight in blood and this he will probably soon Iearn and soon again be upon the town
You wonder no doubt how Frank should recognise a man who attempting to rob us on a dark night had stationed himself at the head of the carriage Had he seen no more of him he would have been in little danger of detection But on one of the visits which Frank made to Webb the brother of Peggy he had met him on the stairs Mr Mac Fane as he descended was opposite the window on the landing place and his face was full in the light while Frank could
scarcely be seen by him being then several steps below him His countenance is a remarkable one it has a deep scar above the left eye and Frank suspecting him to be the accomplice of the man he was going to visit had fixed it in his memory
Frank has since been talking very seriously with this brother of Peggy and appears to have convinced him that his present profession is as much that of a thief as his former However in this short space of time without understanding the vile arts of a gambler he has collected between two and three hundred pounds Such is the folly with which money is squandered at these places While Mr Mac Fane is absent he thinks himself in no danger and
should he return he has been promised the protection of our family which he thinks a sufficient guarantee being rather afraid of him as a desperado than as an accuser Webb has therefore agreed to take a shop and exercise his trade as a master He is a man of quick intellects and notwithstanding all that he has done has many good propensities As a proof of these his poor sister the kind Peggy has infinite affection for him and is sure now that he will do well
Sir Arthur and Edward have both been very sincere and hearty in their thanks to Frank to which he answers and answers truly it was a stroke rather of good fortune than of foresight But he has gained himself a character and
they are partly of opinion that every thing must prosper which he undertakes Aunt Wenbourne too overflows in his praise Edward is her favourite and Frank stands now almost as high on her list as he was but a little while ago the reverse for Edward is continually talking of him to her and every word he says is orthodox But opinions like these are too light too full of prejudice too mutable to be of much value
Clifton kept away all the evening however after hearing the whole story he was obliged to acknowledge that let his other qualities be what they would he could not have been so successful as Frank in this affair because he could have known nothing of Mr Mac Fane
But he did not forget that this was an accident unforeseen at the time when Frank was trusted
My constant rule of equanimity of temper has restored him to his wonted goodhumour But I perceive he regrets the possibility of any man equalling him in the esteem of those whose friendship he cultivates Alas Why does he not rather seek to surpass them than to envy their virtues
He says he will propose an eulogium on Frank and give a prize himself to the French Academy for he finds he will never get sufficiently praised in England He never knew so eternal a theme for panegyric In fine it is evident in despite of his efforts to conceal it that his
jealousy increases and I suspect he feels this last decision against him more sensibly than any preceding circumstance
Adieu
Most truly and dearly your own A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO OUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
WAR Fairfax war—It is declared—Open war—My wrathful spirits are in a blaze and I am determined Hear and blame me if you can But do I not know you Does not the temper of your letters tell me you will applaud my just anger and fixed revenge
Yes Fairfax longer to palliate or wilfully be blind to the partial edicts and haughty ordonnances of this proud beauty were idiotism She has presumed too far I am not quite so tame a creature as she supposes She shall find I am not the clay but the potter I will mould not be moulded Poltron as I was to think of sinking into the docile domesticated timid animal called husband But the lions paws are not yet pared beware then my princess
The lady would carry it with a high hand Fairfax But let her If I not note her freaks if I forget her imperious caprice if my embittered mind slumber in its intents say not I am the proudspirited Clifton you once knew that prompt bold and inflexible fellow
whom arrogance could rouse and injury inflame but a suffering patient ass a meek pitiful thing such as they would make me
Wonder not that I now am angry but that I have so long been torpid A little phrensy has restored the palsied soul to life and again has put its powers in motion Ill play no more at questions and commands—Or if I do it shall only be to make sure of my game
I have been reproved silenced tonguetied browbeaten have made myself an ape been placed behind the door and have shewed tricks for her diversion But I am not muzzled yet they shall find me one of the ferae naturae
A most excellent project forsooth When I am sufficiently familiarized to
contradiction rebuke fillips on the forehead and raps on the knuckles she will then hear me my prayers pack me off peaceably to bed for tonight and graciously bestow a pat and a promise upon me for tomorrow There is danger in the whim lady beauteous though you are and invincible as you may think yourself Model me—No—I am of a metal which not even your files can touch You cannot knead doughbake and temper me to your leaven
Fairfax she had fascinated me I own it There is such incantation in the small circle of her eye as mortal man scarcely can resist I adored her nay still adore But she knows me not I have a soul of fire She has driven me beyond the limits of patience
Her wisdom degenerates into rhodomontade She will prescribe the hour and minute when she shall begin to love She does not pretend to love me yet and if she did her looks her manner would betray the falsehood of her heart
Yet let me not wrong her vexed though I am Double dealing is not her error she is sufficiently sincere
Why would I hide it from myself Her partialities all lead another way ay and her passions too if passions she have But this most incomprehensible this tormenting incoherent romance of determining not to have any I believe from my soul in part produces the effect she intends and almost enables her to keep her determination
Still and eternally this fellow This
Frank Oh that I were an Italian and that my conscience would permit me to deal him the stilletto—Let him beware—He is employed preferred praised It is eulogium everlasting Had Fame as many trumpets as she has tongues and lies they would all be insufficient And not only she but the whole family father brother aunts the devil knows who each grateful soul is oozing out the froth of its obligations
Had they less cause perhaps I should be less irritated but he has rescued the poor being of a brother Edward St Ives who had neither courage nor capacity to rescue himself from the gripe of a gambler This Edward who is one of the kings captains God bless him and who has spent his fortune in learning the
trade not of a man of war but of a man of fashion having lost what ready money he had staked his honour against a cogger of dice and was presently tricked out of three thousand guineas which he was too poor in pocket to pay and if I guess right too poor in spirit afterward to face the ruffian whom he had made his companion
So Mr Henley and it please you was chosen by father and daughter Though she owns she proposed it first for she does not scruple to own all which she does not scruple to act The holy mission was his to dole out salutary documents of reproof and apothegms of Epictetus and to try whether he could not release the birdlimed owl I was overlooked I am unfit for the office I
am but little wiser than the booby brother Whereas Solomon himself and the seven sages to boot are but so many men of Gotham when he is present The quintessence of all the knowledge wit wisdom and genius that ever saw the sun from the infantine days of ABC and king Cadmus to these miraculous times of intuition and metaphysical legerdemain is bottled up in his brain from which it foams and whizzes in our ears every time discretion can be induced to draw the cork of silence—Once again let him beware
I then am selected for no other purpose but for her morality to make experiments upon—She is called wise and wise she may be nay wise she is or at least all other women she being present
are intolerably foolish But by heaven this is no proof of her wisdom I am the scapegoat—I—Be it so—Should she be caught in her own springe who can say I am to blame
She has seen my anger for I could not hide it but she has seen it only in part A hypocrite she wants and a hypocrite she shall have I will act the farce which she is composing let her look to the catastrophe
I begin to think that marriage and I shall never meet for if I withstand her woman cannot tempt me And her I shall withstand At least I never will have her till I have humbled her and then perhaps I shall not be in the humour And yet my heart tells me that I shall For in spite of all its anger in
spite of her injustice and glaring indifference the remembrance of which puts me in a fever it would be misery to know her recollect her and live without her
But patience Her pride shall first be lowered I must command not be commanded and when my clemency is implored I will then take time to consider
My brain is in a ferment and its various engines are already in commotion She herself her hated favourite her father her brother her aunt her uncle her maid every creature that surrounds her must each and all contribute to my purposes and plots Parts fit for the actors must be assigned The how and what I know not yet precisely for I have scarcely sketched the canvas but
I have conceived some bold and masterly strokes and I foresee the execution must be daring and impassioned I am in haste to begin and my hot oscillatory spirits can with difficulty be tamed to the still pause of prudence and premeditation they are eager for the fight and think caution a tardy general if not a coward
I know not how it is but when I am angry very angry I feel as if I were in my element My blood delights to boil and my passions to bubble I hate still water An agitated sea An evening when the fiery sun forebodes a stormy morning and the blackbased clouds rise like mountains with hoary tops to tell me tempests are brewing These give emotion and delight supreme Oh
for a mistress such as I could imagine and such as Anna St Ives moulded by me could make One that could vary her person her pleasures and her passions purposely to give mine variety Whose daily and nightly study all should centre in me and my gratifications Whose eyes should flash lightning to rouse the chilled sensations and shed appeasing dews to quench the fire of rage These are the objects in which I could delight these the devotions I require Change for me A true English day in which winter and summer hail rain and sunshine meet and mingle
I had almost forgotten one chief cause of my resentment though the most fortunate one I could have wished for to
promote my purpose This Sir Arthur dallies with me I find from various items which the candour of her mind has suffered to escape that the motive is poverty I am glad of it I will urge and hurry her into a promise to be mine The generosity of her temper will aid me I will plead the injury done me by hesitation I feel it and therefore my pleadings will be natural It is her pride to repair the wrongs which others commit This pride and this heroism of soul which I must acknowledge in her are unaffected shall be the main engines with which I will work Without these perhaps I might despair but with them hold myself secure of victory
Yes lady of the high sciences you must descend and let my star mount the
horizon The gathering clouds must eclipse your effulgence while I shine chief of the constellation
As for the rest of the family more or less they are all fools therefore are neither to be feared nor pitied On her perhaps I may have compassion when I have taught her contrition and when she knows me for her superior
I have written a volume yet have not half disburthened my labouring mind Oh that I could present the picture to you complete That I could paint her as she is all beauty all excellence all kindness all frost That I could shew the sweet enthusiast in the heyday insolence of her power pretending to guide reform humble and subjugate me while love and vengeance swell my heart
hypocrisy smooths my face and plots innumerable busy my brain It is a fruitful rich resplendent scene of which Fairfax you have no conception Me you have known intimately and are honest enough to own you have admired but of her all ideal tracings are contemptible
Nor should this knight of the magic lanthorn be forgotten this Nestor junior this tormenting rival—Oh how I could curse He who stands as ready as if Satan had sent him to feed the spreading flames with oil He fills his place on the canvas And who knows but I may teach him yet to do his office as he ought How would it delight me There is an intemperance of superiority which no human patience can support
nor any acts of kindness compensate A triumph over her will indeed be a triumph over him and therefore doubly delicious
I grant he forbears to prate of the life he gave me But am I not reminded of the oppressive gift every time he dares to contradict me Would I endure his interference as I do would I be shouldered and butted at by him would I permit his opinion to be asked or his dogmas to silence me were I not burthened with this unasked benefit
Infatuated lunatic as I was But I am in the school of prudence at present and suppose I shall learn a little some time though I do not know when since I am told it is not easy to learn a trade one hates
Mean while I pay my court assiduously to the two peers Evelyn and Fitz Allen who at present are both in town Nothing must be neglected nothing left unprepared Vigilance foresight and cunning must do their office and will soon be in full employment of what kind I cannot yet determine or whether it must be open war or covert or both but my augury predicts the scene will soon be all life all agitation all enjoyment Commotion is my element battle my delight and conquest my heaven
This is my hour of appointment she is expecting me yet my crowding thoughts will with difficulty allow me to lay down the pen they rise in armies and I could write world without end
and never come to an amen But I must begone Adieu
I imagine that by this time you are at Paris or will be before the arrival of this letter which according to your directions I shall superscribe Poste restante
C CLIFTON
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
NEED I tell my affectionate friend how great the pleasure is which I receive from her letters and from that free communication of thought which so effectually tends to awaken the best emotions of mind and make us emulate each
others virtues Like her I sit down now while memory is awake to relate such material incidents as have happened since last I wrote
The anger of Clifton is softened into approbation The most generous minds are liable from the acuteness of their sensibility to be unjust We are once again very good friends
Not but we have just been engaged in a very impassioned scene The subject of family consent was revived by him and as I intended I informed him that delay seemed inevitable
The struggle of his feelings when he heard it appeared to be violent His exclamations were characteristic of his habitual impetuosity the strength of them excited sensations and alarms
which prove the power he has over the passions Oh how I desire to see that power well directed How precious how potent will it then become
One thing and only one he vehemently affirmed could appease the perturbation of his mind and preserve him from wretchedness which none but those who felt like him could conceive—
And what I asked was that—
He durst not speak it—Yet speak he must plead he must Should he fail phrensy despair he knew not what but something fearful would indubitably follow—
Again what was it—
Might he hope It depended on me and denial and distraction were the same—
He made me shudder And serious when I heard it though I found his demand to be his manner inspired a confused dread of something repugnant something eminently wrong
He ventured at last to speak I believe he watched his moment The passions Louisa however disturbed are always cunning He demanded a promise solemn and irrevocable to be his
Such a promise I answered was unnecessary and if at all could only be given conditionally—
There were no conditions to which he was not ready to subscribe—
I replied too much readiness denoted too little reflection and not fortitude sufficient to fulfil such conditions
Fortitude could never fail him having
me not only for an example but a reward Again he repeated without my promise my sacred promise he really and seriously feared distraction That this was weakness he was ready to allow but if it were true and true it was should I want love I yet had too much benevolence not to desire to avert consequences which beyond all others are horrible to imagination
He has surely very considerable knowledge of the human heart for his tone and manner produced all the effect he intended I had foreseen the probability of such a request though not all the urgency with which it was made and had argued the question of right and wrong My conclusion had been that such a promise with certain provisos was a duty
and accordingly I gave it stipulating a power to retract should experience teach us that our minds and principles could not assimilate
At first he was not satisfied Intreaties the most importunate that language could supply were repeated that I should make no such exceptions They were impossibilities needless but tormenting Finding however that I was resolved he softened into acquiescence thanked me with all the transports which might be expected from him and kissed my hand He would not have been so satisfied had I not very seriously repulsed the encroaching freedoms which I had lately found him assuming since which he is become more guarded
What latent inconsistency is there
Louisa in my conduct which can incite the alarms to which I feel myself subject The moment I had made the promise I shuddered and while acting from the strongest sense of duty and the most ardent desire of doing good I felt as if the act were reprehensible and unjust—It is the words of Frank that are the cause on them my mind dwells and painfully repeats them as if in a delirium like a singing in the ear the tolling of deathbells or the burthen of some tragic ditty which memory in its own despite harps upon and mutters to itself—
He is certain that I act from mistaken principles—To the end of time he shall persist in thinking me his by right
There must be something amiss something
feeble in my mind since the decision of reason cannot defend me from the awe which this surely too hasty too positive assertion inspires It haunts my very dreams
Clifton left me and being gone I went into the parlour Frank was there He had a book in his hand and tears in his eyes I never beheld a look more melancholy Capable as he is of resisting the cowardice of selfcomplaint and gloom still there are moments I perceive in which he can yield and sighing over others woes can cast a retrospective glance on self He had been reading the Julia of Rousseau The picture given by St Preux of his feelings had awakened sympathy too strong to be resisted
We fell into conversation I wished to turn his thoughts into a more cheerful channel but my own partook too much of the same medium not to assimilate themselves in part to his languor
You seem pensive Frank What is the subject of your meditations
The sorrows of St Preux madam
Then you are among the rocks of Meillerie Or standing a partaker of the danger of Julia on the dreadful precipice
No madam The divine Julia is dead—Had you heard the sigh he gave Louisa— I am at a passage which I suspect to be still more sublime I am sure it is equally heartrending
Ay—Which is that
It is Clara at the table of Wolmar
where the child with such simplicity conjures up the infantine but almost perfect semblance of the dead If ever laughter inspired the horrors of distraction it was the laugh of Clara
It is a wonderful passage But I find you were rather contemplating the sorrows of the friend than of the lover
Pardon me madam I was considering since the friend was thus on the very brink of despair what must be the force of mind which could preserve the lover
Friendship and love in such minds are the same
Perhaps so madam
Can there be any doubt
When the lover and the friend are
united the heart is reluctant to own its feelings can be equalled
Ought you not to avoid such a book Frank at least for the present
If it led me into error otherwise not I think I know what were the authors mistakes and he not only teaches but impresses rivets volumes of truth in my mind
The recollection of what had just passed with Clifton forced itself upon me Louisa it made me desirous of putting a question to Frank on the subject and I asked—
What is your opinion of promises
I think them superfluous nugatory and therefore absurd
Without exception
Yes—We cannot promise to do wrong or if we do cannot perform—Neither can we without guilt refrain from doing right whether we have or have not promised
Some glimpse of this truth for I perceive it to be one had shot across my mind but not with the perspicuity of your proposition—I am inclined to be a rude interrogator I have another question to ask He bowed—I own you are seldom wrong and yet I hope—I remember Louisa that I gave a deep sigh here and it must not be concealed—I hope that you have been wrong once in your life
Madam
But perhaps you have changed your opinion
—Do you still think as you did—Are you still certain that I act from mistaken principles He instantly understood me—Had you seen his look Louisa—
I am madam
And shall persist to the end of time
To the end of time
I could not bear it Louisa I burst away
What rash impulse was it that hurried me forward to tempt this trial—Alas It was the vain hope for vain it appears to be he might have retracted
My heart is too full to proceed—Heaven
bless you—Heaven bless you my dear friend—You see how weak I am
A W ST IVES
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London Grosvenor Street
OLIVER I must fly—There is neither peace nor safety for me if I remain—Resolution begins to faint under these repeated and oppressive struggles—Life is useless virtue inefficient time murdered and I must fly—Here I can do nothing but doubt hope despair
and linger in uncertainty my body listless my mind incoherent my days wasted in vain reveries on absurd possibilities and my nights haunted by the confused phantoms of a disturbed and sickly brain—I must fly
But whither—I know not—If I mean to be truly master of my affections seas must separate us Impossibility must be made more impossible—Tis that Oliver which kills me that ignus fatuus of false hope—Were she even married if her husband were not immortal I feel as if my heart would still dwell and feed on the meagre Maybe It refuses to renounce her and makes a thousand and a thousand efforts to oblige me again to urge its just claims
I am in the labyrinth of contradictions
and know not how to get out My own feelings my remarks on hers the looks actions and discourse of this dangerous lover are all embroiled all incongruous all illusory I seem to tempt her to evil by my stay him I offend and myself I torment—I must therefore begone
Oliver our hearts are united—Truth and principle have made them one and prejudice and pride have not the power to dissever them—She herself feels this intimately yet persists in her mistake
I think Oliver it is not what the world or what she understands by love which occasions this anarchy of mind I think I could command and reprove my passions into into silence Either I mistake myself or even now situated as I am I could rejoice were there a certainty nay
were there but strong probabilities that her favourite purpose on Clifton should be effected But the more I meditate and my hours days and weeks pass away and are lost in meditation on this subject the more does my mind persist in its doubts and my heart in its claims
Surely Oliver she is under a double mistake Surely her reasonings both on him and me are erroneous
I must be honest Oliver and tell thee all my feelings fears and suspicions They may be false I hope they are but they exist I imagine I perceive in him repeated and violent struggles to appear what he is not nay what I doubt he would despise himself for being
Is not this an unjustifiable a cruel accusation Why have I this keen this jealous
sensibility Is it not dishonourable to my understanding
Yet should there be real danger and I blind to it Should I neglect to warn her or rather to guard and preserve her from harm where shall I find consolation
Oliver There are times when these fears haunt me so powerfully that my heart recoils my blood freezes and my whole frame is shaken with the terrific dream—A dream—Yes it must be a dream If not the perversion of his mind and the obduracy of his heart are to me wholly incomprehensible
I must be more guarded—Wrongfully to doubt were irreparably to injure My first care must be to be just
Mark Oliver how these wanderings
of the mind mislead and torment me One minute I must fly to recover myself and not to disturb and waylay others the next I must stay to protect her who perhaps is best able to protect herself
I have no plan I labour to form one in vain That single channel into which my thoughts are incessantly impelled is destructive of all order and connexion The efforts of the understanding are assassinated by the emotions of the heart till the reproaches of principle become intolerable and the delusions of hope distracting—A state of such painful inutility is both criminal and absurd
The kindness of the father brother and aunt the sympathising tenderness which bursts from and overcomes the
benign Anna the delay of the marriage—Oliver—I was recapitulating the seeming inspirations of my good angel and have conjured up my chief tormentor—This delay—Where does it originate—With whom—With— I must fly—This of all motives is the most irrefragable—I must fly—But when or how or where what I must undertake whither go or what become is yet all vague and incoherent conjecture
F HENLEY
SIR ARTHUR ST IVES TO ABIMELECH HENLEY
London Grosvenor Street
MR HENLEY
IT is now some time since I received your letter It astonished and I must say offended me so much that I do not yet know what answer to return You say I have thrown you into a quandary Mr Henley and I can very sincerely return
your compliment Mr Henley for nothing can be more unintelligible than your whole letter is to me Mr Henley And I must say I think it not very grateful in you Mr Henley nor in my opinion very proper to write me such a letter Mr Henley that is as far as I understand its meaning Mr Henley I have no desire Mr Henley to quarrel with you if I can help it but I must say I think you have forgotten yourself Mr Henley It is very unlike the manner in which you have been used to comport yourself to me Mr Henley for if I understand you rightly which I own it is very difficult to do you threaten me with foreclosures Mr Henley which I must say Mr Henley is very improper demeanour from you to me Mr Henley
Not that I seek a rupture with you Mr Henley though I must say that all this lies very heavy upon my mind Mr Henley
You insinuate that you are grown rich I think Mr Henley So much the better for you And you seem to know Mr Henley that I am grown poor or I think Mr Henley you would not have written to me in a style which I could almost be tempted to call impertinent but that I wish to avoid a quarrel with you Mr Henley unless you force me to it There is law as you say Mr Henley for every man but law is a very fretful and indeed fearful thing to which you know I am averse Mr Henley Not but there are proceedings Mr Henley which may
lead me to consider how far it is necessary
I must say Mr Henley that my astonishment is very great after writing me word as you did that I might have the money which I took very kindly of you that you should now contradict yourself so flagrantly I am obliged to repeat it Mr Henley and tell me it is not to be had What you mean by the whats and the whys and the wherefores being forthcoming is really above my capacity Mr Henley and I request you would speak plainly that I may give a plain answer
You say you can keep your hat on your head and look your betters in the face Mr Henley May be so But I eave it to your better judgment to consider
Mr Henley whether you ought to forget that they are your betters
There are indeed as you tell me wheels within wheels Mr Henley for I find that you and not my son are in possession of the Edgemoor estate God bless us all and give us clean hands and hearts Mr Henley I say no more Though I must say that when I heard it my hair almost stood an end
You talk a great deal about somebodys son Mr Henley You have puzzled me much but I think you must mean your own son Though what you mean beside is more than I can divine I am very unwilling Mr Henley to think any thing to your disadvantage and I must say that I could wish you would not speak by ifs and ands and
innuendos but let me know at once what you mean and all you mean and then I shall know how to act
Your son I own is a very excellent young gentleman a very extraordinary young gentleman and no person can be more ready to acknowledge his merits than I and my whole family You seem offended with my offer of a commission for him which I own astonishes me for I must say Mr Henley that I thought I was doing you an act of kindness Not that I blame your prudence sir or your aversion to the prodigal spendthrifts who too frequently are fond of red coats and cockades which are so offensive to your notions of prosperity
I am not unwilling to own that I and all my family are even under obligations
to your son For which reason I am the more inclined to overlook what I must say does not please me in your last very unexpected letter Let me tell you Mr Henley that I cannot but hope you will think better of it and that you will use your kind endeavours to get me the money according to your promise which I shall take very friendly of you sir and shall be willing to do any thing for your son in that case for your sake as well as for his own which reason can require
I beg Mr Henley you will consider very seriously of this and I should hope you would not forget former times and the very many favours which in my life I have done you I do assure you sir I have the utmost desire to continue
on a good understanding with you but I think I have some right to expect your compliance from motives of reason not to say of gratitude So committing this to your consideration and expecting an agreeable answer I remain sir as usual
A ST IVES
ABIMELECH HENLEY TO SIR ARTHUR ST IVES
WenbourneHill
MOST ONNURABLE SIR
IT doth appear as how your onnur be amifft Whereby I did a partly a queery as much thof so be as it be no fault of mine For why There be reasons and causes For when as a man has a nothink to fear of nobody I am of a mind
that a may pen his thofts to any man Why not Always a savin and exceptin your onnurable onnur
And ast for a mans a portin himself there be times and seasons for all thinks Whereof as Friar Bacon said to Friar Bungy and of the Brazenhead A time was—A time is—And a time is past And ast for a threatening about foreclosures why what have I to say to a gentleman if a will not redeem his mortgages when the time be The law must look to it to be sure Always a savin and exceptin your onnurable onnur still say I So that it be altogether compus mentus that quarrels and rupturs are none of my seekin Whereby your onnurable onnur will look to that No man can deny that every man has a rite to
his own For why A pays scot and lot and has a nothink for it but law
And ast for a mans a growin of rich why as I do take it as a not the worse for that And ast for a mans a growin of poor why a what had I to do thof so be that some be wise and some be otherwise Whereof so long as the rhino do ring the man is the man and the masters the master As a buzzard in grain that do flicker and fleer and tell a gentleman a be no better nur a bob gudgeon a cause a do send the yellow hammers a slying for thof it might a be happen to be true enough a would get small thanks for his pains Every man eat his meat and he that do like cut his fingers The foolish hen cackles and the cunning quean chuckles For why
A has her chalk and her nest egg ready Whereof I tout and trump about at no man an a do not tout and trump about at me Always a savin and exceptin your onnurable onnur and not a seekin of quarrels and rupturs an they do not seek me Otherwise why so Plain and positive thats best when a man do find the shoe to pinch
And ast for law why he that has a got the longest head will have a most ont for money and he that has a got the longest purse will behappen not to be the first to cry peccavi Whereof if a man do don his hat on his head an a see good cause why not For I do a warrant a will see good cause an a do doff it under his arm
Whereby every why has a wherefore
Any fool can a put down his five nothings but as a clever kinchin an a can place a so much as a I afore em Whereof the first frost that brings a white crow may in sitch a case behappen to shew him his betters For why As a got wherewithall to get more and a knows the trick ont too or a would a never a got so much Whereby an it comes to a huff an a gruff a may not chuse to be arm a kimbod any more nur another for a may be happen to have a Rowland for an Oliver A may behappen to be no Jackafarthin weazlefaced whipster A may have stock and block to go to work upon and may give a rum for a glum always a savin and exceptin your onnurable onnur Showin whereby as I want no
quarrels nur rupturs but peace and good will towards men if so be as the whys and the wherefores do a bear me out
Whereof thof a man be but a Mister a may behappen to buy and sell a knight of the shire that is under favour and a savin and exceptin of your onnurable onnur For why I be as ready to a quit my hands of quarrels and rupturs as another
Whereby if the Edgemoor estate be mine why it is my own For why Bein it was my cash that a covered it Whereof his younk onnur was all a mort and a down in the mouth when a did come to me The world was wide and a might a gone further and a fared worse As a dolt indeed that will part with money and not have moneys
worth Whereby I had a bin starvin and pinchin and scrapin and coilin and moilin in heat and in cold up a early and down a late a called here and a sent there a bidden and a chidden and a forbidden to boot every bodys slave forsooth whereby I am now my own master Why not Who can gain say it Mayhap a savin and exceptin of your onnurable onnur witch is as it may be For why I wants a nothink to do with quarrels and rupturs no more nur another but thats as thinks shall turn out
Whereby one mans hair mayhap may stand an end as well as anothers exceptin that I wears a wig An I give the kole Ill have the dole And ast for somebodys son if so be as a man
be to be twitted a thisn after all the gunpowder pistols and bullets and scowerins and firins and bleedins and swimmins and sinkins and risks and rubs and sea scapes and shore scapes at home and abroad by land and by water and savins of precious lives and precious cash why if so be as all this be to stand for nothink it is a time for a man to look aboutn
To be sure your onnur is so good as to say my son is a younk gentleman and so forth Whereby this gracious and ever mercyfool lovin kindness would go to the cockles of my heart ay and my chitterlins would crow and I should sing O be joyfool if so be as I did find as words wus any think but wind Whereof when your onnurable onnur is
compulsionated willy nilly to be so all bountifool as to profess to the ownin of obligations why that is summut But fair speeches wonnot heal broken pates and a mouthfool of moonshine will send a man hungry to bed Promise may be a fair dog but Performance will catch the hare
Whereby had thinks a bin as they might a bin why then indeed it would a bin summut But as to the wherewithalls of the twenty thousand pounds being as it be why the think is unpossable to be done For why The case is altered Whereof it is best to be downright Will is free and money for me
Whereby this marriage match with the Clifton family had my oar bin asked would never a bin of my advizin For
why I shall not give my lard to butter my neighbours bacon
And ast for favours received why may be so But what then Since if so be thof it wus sometimes fair why it wus sometimes foul And a good man may behappen to be all as much as a good master And if a man have a spent his whole lifetime in a pickin and a cullin and a coinin and a furbishin up fine words to tickle the ears of fine folks why a ought in all conscience to get the wherewithalls for his pains For if an a gentleman will eat pine apples a must not expect to pay for pippins Always as aforesaid a savin and exceptin your onnurable onnur So that if quarrels and rupturs will come they may not a be said to be of my seekin
Bein as I am ever and amen with all pious jakillations and jubilees of blessins and praise never failin to pray for due time to repent us of all our manifold sins and wickedness God of his mercy be good unto us and save us and deliver us on our death bed from the everlastin flamin sulphur of the burnin lake Amen an it be his holy will Umbelly beggin leave to superscribe meself
ABIMELECH HENLEY
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
I HAVE had a scene with Frank which affected me much and which has occasioned another quarrel or kind of a quarrel with Clifton Sir Arthur had just left the room He had been asking Frank whether there were any possible way by which he could serve him We
all were his debtors very deeply and he should be happy to find any mode of discharging the obligation Sir Arthur spoke with an earnestness which in him is by no means customary But Frank had nothing to ask nothing to propose
I was sitting at my harpsichord amusing myself and Sir Arthur being gone stopped to tell Frank how sincerely I joined in Sir Arthurs feelings
I have nothing madam said he to hope from Sir Arthur but to you I have a request to make which you would greatly oblige me should you grant—
I trembled Louisa I was afraid of some new contest of the passions a revival of ideas which I myself had so lately and so inadvertently called to mind I am persuaded the blood forsook
my cheeks when I asked him what it was for Frank with a tenderness in his voice that was indeed honourable to his heart prayed conjured me not to be alarmed—It was a trifle—He would be filent—He would not give me a moments pain to gratify a million of such silly wishes
He both moved and revived me It could not be any thing very dreadful and I entreated him to speak There was nothing he could ask I would refuse
He hesitated and I then became urgent At last he named—His song—Again Louisa he almost struck me to the heart—He feared he offended me but there was something so enchanting in the air that he could not forget it
could not resist the wish to possess a copy
It was impossible to refuse I went to my papers and brought it The evil spirit of thoughtlessness possessed me and when I delivered it I asked—Is there any thing else—
Your kindness madam said he is unalterable Could I—Durst I—
What—
He paused—
Speak—
He laid the song upon the musicdesk and looked—No no—I will not attempt to tell you how
Words were needless they could not petition with such eloquence—A barbarian could not have refused I rambled over the keys hemmed and
endeavoured to collect myself At last a sense of propriety of reason of principle came to my aid and bade me be master of my mind I began to sing but no effort could enable me to give that expression of which I had before found the words so susceptible
Could you think it Louisa Do you now foresee do you forebode what happened—Your brother came in—
To have stopped to have used evasion to have had recourse to falsehood would have turned an act of virtue into contemptible vice I continued Clifton came and looked over my shoulder The music was on one sheet of paper the words were on another in the writing of Frank Your brother knew the hand
When I had ended Frank took both
the papers thanked me and retired I could perceive the eyes of Clifton sparkle with emotion I might almost say rage He would have spoken but could not and I knew not how safely to begin
At length a consciousness of not having done or at least intended to do wrong gave me courage I determined not to wait to be questioned I asked him how he liked the song
Oh Exceedingly—It was very fine—Very fine
The words are Mr Henleys
I imagined as much madam
I thought them expressive and amused myself with putting a tune to them
I am as good as a witch
How did you like the subject
What subject madam
Of the words
I really dont know—I have forgotten—
Nay you said you thought them very fine
Oh Yes—True—Very fine—All about love—I recollect
Well and having so much faith in love you do not think them the worse for that
Oh by no means—But I thought you had
Love in a song may be pardonable
Especially madam if the song be written by Mr Henley
Clifton—You almost teach me to despair—You do not know me—Perhaps however I am more to blame than you at present Timidity has
given me some appearance of conscious guilt which my heart disavows But as there is scarcely any error more dangerous to felicity than suspicion I own I am sorry to see you so frequently its slave Never think of that woman for a wife in whom you cannot confide And ask yourself whether I ought to marry a man who cannot discover that I merit his confidence
I find indeed implicit faith to be as necessary in love as in religion—But you know your power madam
An indifferent spectator would rather say you know yours
You will not go madam and leave me thus
I must
In this misery
I have letters to write and visits to pay
You cannot be so cruel—By heaven madam this torment is more than nature can support
Less impetuosity Clifton less raptures and more reason
You would have me rock madam Unfeeling marble
I would have you a man a rational and if possible a wise one
Stay at least for a moment—Hear me—Do not leave me in these doubts
What doubts—Do I not tell you the words are Mr Henleys The air is mine If setting them were any guilt it is a guilt of which I am not conscious Shew me that it is criminal and I will instantly retract We must either overcome
these narrow these selfish propensities or we shall hope in vain to be happy
I—I—I make no accusation—
Do but examine before you accuse and I will patiently hear and cheerfully answer to accusation If you think it wrong in me not to treat virtue and genius with neglect bring me your proofs and if I cannot demonstrate their fallacy I will own my error Let me add the accusation of reason is a duty from which though painful we ought not to shrink It is the mistaken accusation of the passions only at which justice bids the heart revolt
Here Louisa once again I left him with struggles apparently more acute than the former And my own mind is
so affected so oppressed as it were by crowds of ideas that I do not yet know whether this were an accident to be wished or even whether I have entirely acted as I ought My mind will grow calmer and I will then begin the scrutiny
I am minute in relating these particulars because I am very desirous of doing right And who is so capable of being my judge or who so anxious I should not err as my dear Louisa my friend my sister
All good be with you
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Doverstreet
OH Fairfax if my choler rose when last I wrote where shall I now find words hot enough to paint the phrensy of my soul—How could I rage and rave—Is it come to this—So barefaced—So fearless—So unblushingly braved—
Fairfax I came upon them—By surprise—My alert and watchful spirit an adept in such arts accustomed to them and rendered suspicious by practice and experience foreboded some such possibility—My knock at the door was counterfeit I strode up stairs to the drawingroom three steps at a time—Swiftly and suddenly—I opened the door—There they sat—Alone—She singing a miserable ditty a beadroll of lamentable rhymes strung together by this Quidam—This Henley—Nay—Oh—Damnation—Read and tremble—Read and aid me to curse—Set by her—Ay—A ballad—A love complaint—A most doleful woebegone elegy of sorrows sufferings fate despair and death scribbled by him and
set and sung by her—By her—For his comfort his solace his pleasure his diversion—I caught them at it—Nay they defied me despised the wrath that drank up the moisture of my eyes blazed in my blood and scorched my very soul—
And after this will I blench Will I recant the denunciations which legitimate vengeance has pronounced—
Fairfax—I am not certain that I do not hate her—No—Angelic sorceress—It is not hatred neither—But it is a tumult a congregate anarchy of feelings which I cannot unravel except that the first feature of them is revenge—Roused and insulted as I am not all her blandishments can dazzle divert or melt me Were mountains to
be moved dragons to be slain or lakes of liquid fire to be traversed I would encounter all to attain my end—Yes—My romance shall equal hers No epic hero not Orpheus Aeneas or Miltons Lucifer himself was ever more determined I could plunge into Erebus and give battle to the legion phantoms of hell to accomplish my fixed purpose—Fixed—Fixed—Hoot me hiss at me despise me if I turn recreant No—Then may all who ever heard the name of Coke Clifton make it their byword and their scoff and every idiot curl the nose and snuff me to scorn
Recollect but the various affronts I have received Fairfax from her and Oh patience Her inamorato For is he not so—Wrongs some of which
irritate most because they could not be resented insults some petty some gigantic which ages could not obliterate call these to mind and then think whether my resolves be not rockbuilt Insolent intrusion has been his part from the first moment to the last The prince of upstarts man could not abash him nor naked steel affright On my first visit entrance was denied by him Permission was asked of a gardeners son and the gardeners son sturdily refused I argued I threatened—I—And arguments and threats were so much hot breath but harmless Attempts to silence or to send him back to his native barn alike were baffled and I who planned his removal was constrained to petition for his stay Yes constrained—It
was do it or—Oh—Be faithful to me memory—He was elected president of opinions and disputes past present and to come Appeals must all be made to him and his sentence was definitive Law or gospel physics or metaphysics himself alone superior to college court or convocation Before him sunk scholiast and schools In his presence the doctors all must stand uncapped the seraphic the subtle and the singular the illuminated the angelic and the irrefragable to him were tyros all Our censor in private and in public our familiar like a malignant demon no respect no place no human barriers could exclude him On no side could the offended eye turn and not find him there Disgraced by his company counteracted
by his arrogance insulted by his sarcasms obliged to accept the first of favours life at his hands his apparent inferior in the moment of danger my ministry rejected for his nay contemned in a case where the gentleman the man of the world and the man of honour merited undoubted preference and as the climax of injury wronged in my love—Rivalled—Furies—
And she—Has she been less contumelious less annoyant less tormenting—His advocate his abettor his adulator with me only she was scrupulous and severe I generously and almost instantly forgot all former resolves and would have thrown myself into her arms—Unconditionally—I who had been accustomed to give the law not to
receive I assumed not the dictator I whose family courage person and parts have made me a favourite with the brave and fair though flushed with success far from claiming superiority 1 came to cast myself my freedom and my trophies at her feet—Came and was rejected Bargained with at least put off with ifs and possibilities
I must stop—Must think no more—Or the hurrying blood will burst my veins or suffocate my swelling heart and impede just retribution for these and all my other thousand wrongs which only can be avenged by calm and subtle foresight—Yet think not that the smallest of them is forgotten—Oh no—
Well then calm will I be for I can be will be any thing rather than not attain
this supreme of pleasures divine vengeance Yes anger must be bridled it has now a second time made me tread backward more than all the steps I had taken in advance My brain is labouring for some certain and uniform plan but is at present so disturbed that thought can preserve no settled train
Previous to this second childish overflow of passion for if I would succeed childish it is I had played a master stroke in which indeed I must own passion was for once my best ally With most ardent importunity I with great difficulty wrested a promise from her to be mine These romancers Fairfax hold love promises to be binding and sacred And this obtained I thought a fair foundation for my fabric
The current of my thoughts is now wholly turned to this subject A thousand manoeuvres crowding present themselves nor can I say how many must be employed I have generally found my brain rich in expedients and I think it will not fail me now I recollect having mentioned the maid Laura she is secured and has been for some time past The fondness of the fool with one less expert would be dangerous but I have taught her to rail at me occasionally to her mistress and to praise the favorite who has never lately been any great favorite with her having as I guess overlooked her when she had kinder inclinations She was tickled with the contrivance which promised to secure her so well from the suspicion of her mistress
and she acts her part tolerably In fact her mistress seems a being without suspicion superior to it and holding it in contempt—So much the better
This fellow this king of the cucumberbeds must be removed I know not yet the means but they must be found Present he is dangerous absent he may perhaps be taught to act his part with safety and effect My ideas are not yet methodised but I have a confused foresight of various modes by which this and much more may and must be accomplished
But no common efforts can be successful—Deep—Deep must be the plot by which she is to be overreached the pit into which she must fall and deep it therefore shall be There is no art I
will not practise no restraint to which I will not submit no desperate expedient to which I will not have recourse to gratify my souls longing—I will be revenged—The irrevocable decree is gone forth—I will be revenged—Fairfax you soon shall hear of me and my proceedings Farewell
C CLIFTON
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
THIS letter dear friend of my heart is begun in a very melancholy mood How easy it is to undertake how difficult to overcome With what facility did I say to myself—Thus will I do and thus—How firmly did I promise Truth appeared so beautiful so captivating
so omnipotent that armed by her an infant could not but conquer Perseverance alone was requisite and I could persevere The solid basis of the earth should almost shake ere I would waver—Poor vain creature—Surely Louisa we are not all so—Heaven forbid—
Why am I thus Why does my heart faint within me Indeed Louisa I begin to fear I have vaunted of powers I do not possess and prescribed to myself duties too dignified too mighty for me—And must I abandon an enterprise I deemed so noble—I have meditated on it Louisa till I could weep—
I will not yet despair At least one effort more and a strong one I will make—Alas I am weary of this promising
My braggart strength is impotency or little better But I will do my best and truth sincerity and good intent must be my trust
My present determination is to relate to your brother all that has passed between me and Frank I will once more state my feelings my principles and my plan The purity of my heart must be my shield To contend thus is painful yet most willingly would I contend were it productive of the good at which I aim But instead of gaining ground I seem to lose Oh that I were more wise that I better knew the human heart and that I well could wield the too gigantic weapons of truth But I fear they are above my force and pity my own imbecility
The hour of appointment is come Clifton will soon be here I have been preparing my mind taxing my memory and arranging my thoughts Oh that this effort may be more successful than the past Did he but know all the good I wish him his heart would surely not feel anger—He shall not die said Frank—Can I forget it—How did my soul glow within me when hopeless but the moment before I beheld nature again struggling for existence and returning life once more stir in the convulsive lip How did my ears tingle with—He shall not die—I saw a noble quality exerted and thought it was but to wish and to have to imitate and to succeed—The brother of my Louisa—A mind too that might outsoar
the eagle and gaze on the sun of truth
There must be some cause for my failure if I fail—With true simplicity of heart I can say most earnestly do I wish to do right most ardently would I endeavour to prove myself a friend worthy of Louisa Clifton and of Frank Henley—Perhaps the latter is the cause—If I have done him wrong Heaven forgive me For I think were I convicted of it I could not forgive myself
The servant has told me Clifton is below I must take a few minutes to breathe—I must collect myself Oh for the tongues of mediating angels
A W ST IVES
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
WHEN last my Louisa heard from me my mind was depressed I almost despaired of the great task I had undertaken I had likewise an immediate duty a disburthening of my soul a kind of confession of facts to make from which education has falsely accustomed us to
shrink with pain and my spirits were overclouded This rigorous duty is performed hope again begins to brighten and my eased heart now feels more light and cheerful
Not but it still is tremulous with the sensations by which it has just been thrilled I seem to have risen from one of the most interesting and I believe I may add awful scenes in which I have ever been engaged The recesses of the soul have been searched that no retrospective accusation of want of absolute and perfect candour might as of late it too often has done rise to assault me
I found Clifton in the parlour His look was more composed more complacent and remarkably more thoughtful
than it had lately been I began with stating that the feelings of my heart required every act every thought of mine that had any relation whatever to him should be fully and explicitly known I conjured him to have the goodness to determine not to interrupt me that I might perform this office clear my conscience and shew my heart unveiled undisguised exactly as it was and that he might at once reject it if it were either unworthy his acceptance or incompatible with his principles
He promised compliance and kept his word I never knew him a listener so long or with such mute patience I had as I may say studied the discourse which I made to him and which I thus began
It will not be my intention Mr Clifton in what I am going to say to appear better or worse than I am Should I be partial to myself I wish you to detect me There is nothing I so much desire as a knowledge of my own failings This knowledge were it truly attained would make the worst of us angels Our prejudices our passions and our ignorance alone deceive us and persuade us that wrong is right
I have before acquainted you of the project of Mrs Clifton and Sir Arthur for our union I have told you of the unfeigned friendship the high admiration and the unbounded love I have for your sister or in other words for her virtues A short acquaintance shewed me that your mind had all the capacity
to which the most ardent of my hopes aspired It had indeed propensities passions and habits which I thought errors but not incurable The meanest of us have our duties to fulfil which are in proportion to our opportunities and our power I imagined that a duty of a high but possible nature presented itself and called upon me for performance
You no doubt will smile at my vanity but I must be sincere By instruction by conversation and by other accidents it appeared to me that I had been taught some high and beneficial truths and principles which you by contrary instruction conversation and accidents had not attained Convinced that truth is irresistible I trusted in the power of these truths rather than of myself
and said here is a mind to which I am under every moral obligation to impart them because I perceive it equal to their reception The project therefore of our friends was combined with these circumstances which induced me willingly to join their plan and to call my friend sister was an additional and delightful motive It appeared like strengthening those bonds between us which I believe no human force can break
An obstacle or rather the appearance of an obstacle somewhat unexpectedly arose From my childhood I had been in part a witness of the rising virtues of young Mr Henley Difference of sex of situation and of pursuits prevented us till lately from being intimate I had
been accustomed to hear him praised but knew not all the eminence with which it was deserved He was my supposed inferior and it is not very long since I myself entertained some part of that prejudice I know myself now not to be his equal
A recollection of combining circumstances convinced me that he had for some time and before I suspected it thought on me with partiality He believes there is great affinity in our minds he avows it and with a manly courage becoming his character which abhors dissimulation has since confessed an affection for me nay has affirmed that unless I have conceived some repugnance to him which I have not nor ever can
conceive I ought as a strict act of justice to myself and him to prefer him before any other
I should acknowledge the cogency of the reasons he assigns and certainly entertain such a preference did it not appear to me that there are opposing and irreconcileable claims and duties It is my principle and perhaps still more strongly his that neither of us must live for ourselves but for society In the abstract our principle is the same but in the application we appear to differ He thinks that the marriage of two such people can benefit society at large I am persuaded that the little influence which it would have in the world would be injurious and in some sort fatal to the small circle for which I seem to exist and
over which my feeble influence can extend
For these reasons only and in compliance with what I believe to be the rigorous but inflexible injunctions of justice have I rejected a man whom I certainly do not merit a man whose benevolent heart capacious mind and extraordinary virtues are above my praise and I almost fear beyond my attainment
My memory will not furnish me with every word and incident that have passed between us and if it would such repetition would be tedious But I wish you clearly to understand that Mr Henley has made these declarations to me that my mode of acting and my reasons have been such as I have mentioned that I am not myself so perfectly satisfied
with these reasons but that I sometimes am subject to recurring doubts and that I do at present and while I have thought or sense shall continue to admire his genius and his virtue
If what he has said or what I have done be offensive to you if you cannot think highly of him and innocently of me if my thoughts concerning him can possibly be stained with a criminal tinge in your eyes it becomes you and I now most solemnly call upon you as a man disdaining deceit at once to say so and here to break off all further intercourse Esteem nay revere him I do and ever must and instead of being guilty for this my principles tell me the crime would be to esteem and revere him less
I trust in the frankness of my heart for
the proof of its sincerity My determination is to have a clear and unspotted conscience Purity of mind is a blessing beyond all price and it is that purity only which is genuine or of any value The circumstance I am going to relate may to you appear strange and highly reprehensible—Be it so—It must be told
We never had but one conversation in which the subject of marriage as it related to him and me was directly and fairly debated He then behaved as he has done always with that sincerity consistency and fortitude by which he is so peculiarly characterised A conversation so interesting in which a man of such uncommon merit was to be rejected by a woman who cannot deny him to be
her superior could not but awaken all the affections of the heart I own that mine ached in the discharge of its duties and nothing but the most rooted determination to abide by those duties could have steeled it to refusal—It was a cruel fortitude
But while it ached it overflowed and to you more especially than to any other person upon earth I think it necessary to say that at a moment when the feeling of compassion and the dread of being unjust were excited most powerfully in my bosom paradoxical as it may seem my zeal to demonstrate the integrity and innocence of my mind induced me to—kiss him
I scarcely can proceed—There are sensations almost too strong to be subdued
—The mind with difficulty can endure that mistake that contortion which can wrest guilt out of the most sublime of its emanations—However if it were a crime of that crime I am guilty—I pretend not to appear other than I am and what I am it is necessary at this moment that you should know
This conversation and this incident happened on the day on which you met him in the corridor coming from my chamber A day Mr Clifton worthy of your remembrance and of your emulation for it afforded some of the strongest proofs of inflexible courage of which man is at present capable He had been robbed of the hope dearest to his heart had been rejected by the woman he had chosen to be the friend and
companion of his life had been enjoined the task of doing all possible good to his rival which he had unconditionally promised and he left her to—receive a blow from this rivals hand
Far be it from me Mr Clifton to wish to give you pain or insult your feelings—Oh no—I retrace the picture only because I think it one of the most instructive lessons for private life the stores of memory can supply
I must further inform you that but a few days ago I questioned him whether he had not changed his opinion concerning me hoping that after mature reflection he might have thought as I do that to refuse him was a duty But he persists in believing it to be an
error He does not however obtrude his thoughts upon me on the subject of love an anchorite could not be more silent or a brother more delicate That one conversation excepted he has made no further attempts A few words were indirectly said when as I have just told you I questioned him but they were excited by me
With respect to the song at which you have last taken offence its brief history is that it was written or at least first seen by me soon after our arrival in France I found it on my musicdesk and I dare affirm it had been left there by mistake not design I supposed it to be his from the handwriting and I set it because it affected me
The day on which you found me singing it to him was the first on which it was ever mentioned by him to me and then after he had been pressed by Sir Arthur to know how he could serve him a copy of it was begged from me as the only favour the family could bestow—He has done us many favours Favours which we shall never have an opportunity to repay Though my hands are impotent ere my thoughts can be restrained from being just to his worth I must be convinced there is guilt in those thoughts
How to address myself now personally to you Mr Clifton I scarcely know The world perhaps would call my views extravagant my pretensions impertinent and my plan absurd—The world
must do its will—In the progress toward truth I have presumed to think you several steps behind me I have proposed to myself in some sort to be your instructress I have repeated my plan to the person whom you perhaps may consider as your rival I have required his aid and have avowed that I think him very considerably your superior Each and all of these may be and I suppose are offensive but the proceedings of rectitude never can be dark hidden and insidious When I have said all that I think of you I should hope you will be more inclined to believe me equitable
There are many leading principles in which we differ and concerning which till we agree to proceed to marriage
would be culpable These you were at first eager to examine but finding the side you took not so clear and wellestablished as you had imagined displeased by contradiction and in the spirit of that gallantry which you profess to admire being willing to appear complaisant to the female to whom you pay your addresses you have lately declined discussion You think no doubt that the lover ought to yield and the husband to command both of which I deny Husband wife or lover should all be under the command of reason other commands are tyranny Reason and not relationship alone can give authority
You think that the claims of birth to superiority are legitimate I hold them
to be usurpations I deem society and you self to be the first of claimants Duels with you are duties with me crimes Suicide you allow to be generally an act of insanity but sometimes of virtue I affirm that no one who is not utterly useless in society or who cannot by dying be of greater use than by living can have a right over his own life and of the existence of such a being I doubt You maintain that what you possess is your own I affirm it is the property of him who wants it most
These are essential differences Nor are these all but perhaps they are more than sufficient to end the alliance we were seeking
Not that I desire to end it—Far far the reverse—You Mr Clifton are so
highly gifted so distinguished in the rank of intellect and have a mind of such potency that to behold its powers employed in the cause of truth to be myself instrumental in a work so worthy and afterward to become the fast and dearest friend of such a mind is a progression so delightful so seducing that for a time I laboured to persuade myself of its possibility
These hopes begin to fade and did you know how much this circumstance afflicts me you would at least absolve me from all charge of indifference
Habits and prejudices which are sanctioned by the general practice and even by numbers who are in many respects eminently wise and virtuous are too stubborn to be overcome by the impotent
arguments of a young female with whom men are much more prone to trifle toy and divert themselves than to enquire into practical and abstract truth In the storm of the passions a voice so weak would not be heard
That all these impediments should be removed I begin to believe but little probable and till they are removed as we are we must remain
The obstacles to marriage are indeed so numerous that I perceive calculation to be very much in favour of celibacy I mean respecting myself I ask not riches but of wealth of mind my expectations by some would be called extravagant Yet lower these expectations I cannot for that would be to relax in principle
I ended and your brother still sat patient and willing to listen had I desired to continue After a short pause he replied—The profound attention I have paid madam will I hope convince you I have not been an idle listener Your words or at least the substance of them have sunk deep in my heart Your desire that I should remember them scarcely can equal mine To me madam they are so important that the moment I return home confident as I usually am of my memory I will not trust it now but commit them to writing
What your motives are for this unusual care or whether you do or do not feel yourself offended Mr Clifton it is not possible for me to divine but as I
think it alike unjust to conceal what I have done or what I have said however mistaken my words or actions may have been I will spare you the trouble of writing if you think proper and send you a tolerably correct transcript of my thoughts tomorrow morning I can easily repeat them assisted by some memorandums that I have already made and by the strength of my recollection and my feelings which I think are in no danger of a sudden decay
You will infinitely oblige me madam and I will endeavour to profit by the favour My mind is at present as much awake to the subject as yours—I hope you are not unwilling to converse with me on the topics on which we may happen to differ
Unwilling—Oh no—It was your unwillingness that led me almost to despair—But are you in earnest—Truly and sincerely in earnest
In earnest madam truly and sincerely in earnest
And will you really reflect seriously deeply on the subject in question
As deeply madam as you yourself could wish
Mr Clifton your present tone and manner rejoice me—You half revive my hopes—But let me conjure you to be sincere with your own heart Examine every thing I have said every thing especially what relates to Frank Henley All that I have observed of your temper from first to last obliges me thus seriously to warn you
Fear not madam I will obey your injunctions I will examine with all the severity you could wish—The cup may have its bitters but its contents must be swallowed—You will not judge ill of me madam for my frankness
Oh no Be frank be true be worthy of yourself
Such as you would have me madam I must become—All I request is that you would aid me in the task
And are you indeed as determined as you seem to be
I am madam I never before Louisa saw your brother look or speak with such firmness You have been kindly pleased to say you once prescribed it as a duty to yourself to teach or attempt to teach me your principles
Not mine but the principles of truth Cool and fair enquiry is all I wish Should any of your principles be better founded than mine I shall be most happy to become your scholar I am aware how impossible it is that any two people should think exactly alike on any one subject much less on all but on certain great leading points were you and I to continue as opposite as we are and were we to marry felicity could not be the consequence
Let us hope madam it is possible we should make a marriage of opinions which you think as necessary as of persons
Quite—Quite—Let me conjure you however not to deceive yourself Pretend to no conviction you do not
feel nor degrade the honest sincerity of your heart by any unworthy indulgence of desire
Here Louisa our conversation ended Company came in and the customary occupations of the day took place But it is with heartfelt pleasure I add that your brother behaved as if he had forgotten his former character and was at last firmly resolved to assume a new one I have often endeavoured to encourage hope but never before felt it in anything like the same degree He cannot but be in earnest his determination for the first time to commit all I had said to writing is an indubitable proof—May the same propensities continue and increase
—He shall not die will again be the burthen of my song—What a noble mind might his become—Might—Let us once more be bold and say will—Oh that to do were as easy as to say
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London DoverStreet
BEFORE you proceed with my letter Fairfax read the inclosed paper —Read—The handwriting is
hers—It is addressed to me Was repeated to me Is transcribed for me—Transcribed by herself—Read And if it be possible believe in your own existence Believe if you can that all you see all you hear the images that swim before your eyes and the world itself are real and no delusion—For my part I begin to doubt—Read—Oh that I were invisible and standing by your side
Well—Have you ended—And do you still continue to breathe—Are you not a statue—Would not the whole universe denounce me liar if knowing me I were to tell it that words like these were not only spoken to me but are
written lest I should forget the maddening injuries they contain—What Make me her confessor—Me—No secret sin of thought word or deed concealed—All remembered all recited all avowed—Sins committed with the hated Henley—Sins against love against Clifton—Does she imagine I can look on a paper like this and while my eye shoots along the daring the insulting line not feel all the fires that now devour me—Surely she is frantic
These things Fairfax are above my comprehension My amazement must be eternal for I never shall be able to understand them—What Tell me Clifton of her amorous debates with such a fellow Appoint him her headusher
over me Announce him my rival Meet my eye unabashed and affirm him to be my superior Inform me of the deep hold he has taken of her heart Own she kissed him
Once again it is incredible Nay most and still more incredible for strange to say and yet more strange for her to do even this received such a varnish from her lips her eyes her beauties her irradiating zeal that reason everlastingly renounce me if I scarcely knew while she spoke whether it were not the history of some sylph some heavenly spirit she was reciting
Yes Fairfax There was a moment a short but dangerous moment at which so charmed was I by her eloquence so amazed by her daring sincerity so
moved by the white candour of a soul so seeming pure that possessed by I know not what booby devil of generosity I was on the point of throwing myself at her feet confessing the whole guilt of my intents and proclaiming myself her true and irrevocable convert
And this before the breath that uttered these injuries was cold
The siren—All the beauteous witcheries that ever yet were said or sung do not equal her—Circe Calypso Morgana fairy or goddess mortal or immortal knew not to mix the magic cup with so much art
Not that it was her arguments What are they It was her bright her beaming eyes her pouting beauteous lips
her palpitating ecstatic bosom her—I know not what except that even this was not all—No—There was something still more heavenly—An emanating deity—The celestial effulgence of a divine soul that flowed with fervour almost convulsive
Had you witnessed her elevated aspirations—Such swelling passions so mastered so controlled till then I never beheld Like the slow pause of the solemn deathbell the big tear at stated periods dropped but dropped unheeded Though she could not exclude them her stoic soul disdained to notice such intrusive guests—Her whole frame shook with the warfare between the feelings and the will—And well might it shake
I went prepared and lucky it was that I did My fixed determination was to be silent that I might profit by what I should hear That one dangerous moment excepted I was firm—Firm—Not to be moved though rocks would had they listened
Yes Fairfax I did my part Not that I am certain that to fall at her feet like a canting methodist own myself the most reprobate of wretches whine out repentance and implore forgiveness at the all sufficient fountain of her mercy would not be the very way to impose upon her best
I begin indeed to be angry at myself for not having yet resolved on one consistent plan Schemes so numerous present themselves and none without its
difficulties and objections that to determine is no easy task Circumstances in part must guide me I must have patience At present I can only prepare and keep in readiness such cumbrous engines as this phlegmatic foggy land of beef and pudding can afford I must supply the fire if I find it necessary to put the machines in motion
But having decreed her fall my spirits are now alert and there is not a being that surrounds me to whom imagination does not assign a possible part and that the part should be wellsuited to the person must be my care
My first exercise must be on myself Apathy or the affectation of apathy must be acquired—Inevitably must be—My passions must be masked I must pretend
to have conquered them In their naked and genuine form they are indecent immoral impure I know not what But catch a metaphysical quirk and let vanity and dogmatic assertion stand sponsors and baptize it a truth and then raptures extravagance and bigotry itself are deities Be then as loud as violent as intolerant as the most rancorous of zealots and it is all the sublime ardour of virtue
Yes I must learn to ape their contempt of all and every terrene object motive and respect
Inclose the strange paper I sent you and return it in your next I sent it in her own handwriting that your eyes might have full conviction I took a copy of it but I have since recollected I
may want the original The time may come when she may assail me with accusation and complaint I will then present that paper and flash guilt upon her
I am much deceived if I do not observe in this gardening and improving knight a want of former cordiality a decrease of ardour and perhaps a wish to retract—Why let him—To the daughters deadly sins let him add new it will but make invention more active and revenge more keen I will have an eye upon him I half hope my suspicions are true
The aunt Wenbourne too still continues to give laud unto Mr Henley—Damn Mr Henley—But she may be necessary and a she is entirely governed
by the gull Edward I must submit to bring myself into his favour The thing may easily be done
The lordly uncle FitzAllen is secure I frequently dine with him on what he calls his open day he being overwhelmed with business as blockheads usually are and I do not fail to insinuate the relationship in which if care be not taken he may hereafter chance to stand to a gardeners son His face flames at the supposition and his red nose burns more bright What will it do should I make him my tool when he finds to what good purpose he has been an abettor Be that his concern it neither is nor ever shall be mine
But none of these are the exact agent
I want nor have I found him yet They at best can only act as auxiliaries Laura indeed may be eminently useful but the plotting daring mischievous malignant yet subaltern imp incarnate that should run fly dive be visible and invisible and plunge through frost or fire to execute my behests is yet to be discovered
Were I in Italy disburse but a few sequins and battling legions would move at my bidding but here we have neither cicisbeos carnivals confessors bravoes nor sanctuaries No—We have too few priests and too much morality for our noble corps to flourish in full perfection
I know not that all this may be necessary but I suspect it will and I must
prepare for the worst for I will accomplish my purpose in despite of hell or honesty—Ay Fairfax will—Gentle means insinuation and hypocrisy shall be my first resource and if these fail me then I will order my engines to play
I have been once more reading my copy of this unaccountable paper and though every word is engraven in my memory it dropped from my hand with new astonishment Her history of her Mr Henley the yearnings of her heart toward him and her unabashed justification of all she has said all she has thought and all she has done are not to be paralleled in the records of female extravagance
She comes however to the point at last—Calculation is in favour of celibacy—For once lady you are in the right—We may appear to agree on cases more dubious but on that it will be miraculous if we ever hereafter differ
I cannot but again applaud myself for keeping my preconcerted resolution of silence and reserve so firmly I rejoice in my fortitude and my foresight for her efforts were so strenuous and her emotions so catching that had I been less prepared all had been lost
C CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
YES yes Fairfax She takes the sure and resolute road to ruin and travels it with unwearied ardour—What think you she has done now—An earthquake would have been more within my calculation—She labours hard after the marvellous—She has been angling
again in the muddy pool of paradox and has hooked up a new dogma—And what is it—Why nothing less than an asseveration that the promise she made me is not binding—Promises are nonentities they mean nothing stand for nothing and nothing can claim
So be it—It is a maxim divine apostate that will at least serve my turn as effectually as yours To own the truth I never thought promises made to capricious ladies stood for much nor were my scruples at present likely to have been increased If she a woman be simple enough to have faith in the word of man tis her fault Let her look to it
This is not all the doctrine is not of her own invention Mr Henley the
eternal Mr Henley again appears upon the scene from which he is scarcely ever a moment absent—Were it possible I could relent she is determined I shall not But they are both down in my tablets in large and indelible characters on the black list and there for a time at least they shall remain
My plan Fairfax is formed and I believe completely When I was first acquainted with her as you know my meaning was honest and my heart sincere I was a fool at least for a fortnight for that was the shortest period before I began at all to waver I was indeed deeply smitten Nor is desire cooled delay opposition and neglect have only changed its purpose She soon indeed taught me to treat her in
some manner like the rest of her sex and to begin to plot Tis well for me that I have a fertile brain and it had been well for her could she have been contented with the conquest she had made and have treated me with generosity equal to my deserts But a hypocrite she has made me and a hypocrite she shall find me ay and a deep one
She has herself given me my clue she has laid open her whole heart She has the fatuity to mimic the perfect heroine Tell her but it is a duty and with the Bramin wives she would lie down calmly and resolutely on the burning pile
Well then I will tell her of a duty of which she little dreams Yes she shall grant every thing I wish as an act of
duty I will convince her it is one I The pretty immaculate lamb must submit in this point to become my pupil and it shall go hard or I will prove as subtle a logician as herself
What say you Fairfax Is not the project an excellent one Is it not worthy of the sapient Doctor Clifton Shall I lose reputation think you by carrying it into effect
I am already become a new man My whole system is changed She begins to praise me most unmercifully and while my very heart is tickled with my success the lengthened visage of inspired quaker when the spirit moved was never more demure I am too pleased too proud of my own talents not to persist
Already I am a convert to one of her truths Do laugh Fairfax I have acknowledged that you and your footman are equal Is it not ridiculous However I am convinced Ay and convinced I will remain till time shall be She shall teach me a truth a day—Yet no—I must not learn too fast it may be suspicious though I would be as speedy as I conveniently can in my progress
The zeal of disputation burns within her and as I tell you I am already one of her very good boys because the pursuit of my own project makes me now as willing to listen and hunt after deductions such as I want as she is to teach and to supply me with those deductions She starts at no proposition however extravagant if it do but appear
to result from any one of her favourite systems of which she has a good round number Rather than relinquish the least of them she would suppose the glorious sun a coalpit and his dazzling rays no better than volumes of black smoke polished and grown bright on their travels by attrition She professes it to be the purpose of her life to free herself from all prejudices But here she has the modesty to add the saving clause—If it be practicable
Could she Fairfax have a more convenient hypothesis Do you not perceive its fecundity And the task being so very difficult will it not be benevolent in me to lend her my assistance What think you Is it not possible to prove that marriage is a mere prejudice
She shall find me willing to learn many or perhaps all of her doctrines and in return I desire to teach her no more than one of mine Can any thing be more reasonable more generous Nay I will go further I will not teach it her she shall have all the honour of teaching it to me Can man do more
The most knotty and perplexed part of my plan was to find a contrivance to make the gardeners son an actor in the plot The thing is difficult but not impossible I have various stratagems and schemes in the choice of which I must be guided by circumstances That which pleases me most is to invite him to sit in state the umpire of our disquisitions
I think I can depend upon myself
otherwise there would be danger in the project But if I act my part perfectly if I have but the resolution to listen coolly to their quiddities sometimes to oppose sometimes to recede and always to own myself conquered on the points which suit me best I believe both the gentleman and the lady will be sufficiently simple to suppose that in all this there will be nothing apocryphal They will imagine the gilt statue to be pure gold I shall be numbered among their elect I shall rise from the alembic a saint of their own subliming Shall be assayed and stamped current at their mint
Yet I must be cautious I would put my hand in the fire ere undertake so apparently mad a scheme with any other
couple in Christendom Considering how very warm—Curses bite and tingle on my tongue at the recollection—Considering I say how very warm I know their inclinations toward each other to be nothing but the proofs I have had could prompt me to commence an enterprize so improbable But the uncommonness of it is a main part of its merit and I think I know the ground I have to travel so well that I do not much fear I should lose my road
I am aware that the enemy I have most to guard against is myself To pretend a belief in opinions I despise to sit with saturnine gravity and nod approbation when my sides are convulsed with laughter to ape admiration at what
reason contemns and spurns and to smooth my features into suavity while my heart is bursting with gall at the intercourse they continually hold of becks and smiles and approving kind epithets to do all this is almost too much for mortal man But I have already made several essays on myself and I find that the obstinate resolution which an insatiable thirst of ample retribution inspires is not to be shaken and renders me equal even to this task
I am well aware however what dangerous quicksands the passions are and that a good pilot is never sparing of soundings I will therefore not only keep a rigorous watch upon myself but take such measures as shall enable me to exclude or retain the grubmonger as I
shall think fit during our conversations
Thus you are likely soon to hear more of our metaphysics nay if you be but industrious enough to enable you to set up for yourself and become the apostle of Paris I know no place where if you have but a morsel of the marvellous to detail you will find hearers better disposed to gape and swallow
C CLIFTON
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOVISA CLIFTON
London GrosvenorStreet
AFORTNIGHT has almost elapsed since I last wrote to my Louisa till my heart begins to cry shame at the delay Could I plead no other excuse than the trifling occupations of a trifling world I must sign my own condemnation but
your brother has afforded me better employment Our frequent conversations on many of the best and most dignified of moral enquiries his acute remarks and objections and the difficult problems he has occasionally given me to solve have left me in no danger of being idle
Oh Louisa how exquisite is the pleasure I feel to see him thus determined thus incessant in his pursuit A change so fortunate and so sudden astonishes while it delights—May it continue—May it increase—May—Vain unworthy wish—It must—The mind having once seized on the clue of truth can neither quit its hold nor become stationary it is obliged to advance And when its powers are equal to those of
Coke Clifton ought we to wonder at its bold and rapid flights
Still the conquests he daily makes over his own feelings cannot but surprise His struggles are evident but they are effectual He even resolutely casts off the strong prejudices he had conceived against Frank Henley invites him to aid us in our researches and appeals to him to explain and decide
Let us if we wish to weed out error be sincere in our efforts and have no remorse for our prejudices
This is his own language Louisa Oh that I could fully communicate the pleasure this change of character gives me to my friend Yes the restraint which too frequent contradiction lays him under will soon wear off and how great will
then be the enthusiasm with which he will defend and promulgate truth
Nor is it less delightful to observe the satisfaction which this reform sometimes gives to Frank Henley At others indeed he owns he is disturbed by doubt but he owns it with feelings of regret and is eager to prove himself unjust
Yet respecting me his thoughts never vary—Alas Louisa I still am his by right His tongue is silent but his looks and manner are sufficiently audible I surely have been guilty of the error I so much dreaded my cause was strong but my arguments were feeble I have prolonged the warfare of the passions which I attempted to eradicate or rather have left on his mind a deep sense of injustice committed by me— The
thought is intolerable—Excruciating
But oh with what equanimity with what fortitude does he endure his imagined wrongs Pure most pure must that passion be which at once possesses the strength of his and his forbearance There are indeed but few Frank Henleys
Surely Louisa I may do him justice—Surely to esteem the virtuous cannot merit the imputation of guilt—Who can praise him as he deserves And can that which is right in others be wrong in me—Yet such are the mistakes to which we are subject I scarcely can speak or even think of him without suspecting myself of committing some culpable impropriety
Pardon Louisa these wanderings of
the mind They are marauders which uniform vigilance alone can repel They are ever in arms and I obliged to be ever alert But it is petty warfare and cannot shake the dominion of truth▪
My feelings have led me from the topic I intended for the chief subject of this letter
The course of our enquiries has several times forced us upon that great question
the progress of mind toward perfection and the different order of things which must inevitably be the result
Yesterday this theme again occurred Frank was present and his imagination warm with the sublimity of his subject drew a bold and splendid picture of the felicity of that state of society when personal property no longer shall
exist when the whole torrent of mind shall unite in enquiry after the beautiful and the true when it shall no longer be diverted by those insignificant pursuits to which the absurd follies that originate in our false wants give birth when individual selfishness shall be unknown and when all shall labour for the good of all
A state so distant from present manners and opinions and apparently so impossible naturally gave rise to objections and your brother put many shrewd and pertinent questions which would have silenced a mind less informed and less comprehensive than that of our instructor
At last a difficulty arose which to me wore a very serious form and as what was said left a strong impression on my memory I will relate that part of the conversation
Observe Louisa that Clifton and Frank were the chief speakers Your brother began
I confess sir you have removed many apparently unconquerable difficulties but I have a further objection which I think unanswerable
What is it
Neither man nor woman in such a state can have any thing peculiar the whole must be for the use and benefit of the whole
As generally as practice will admit and how very general that may be imperfect as its constitution was Sparta remained during five hundred years a proof
Then how will it be possible when society shall be the general possessor for any man to say—This is my servant
He cannot there will be no servants
Well but—This is my child
Neither can he do that they will be the children of the state
Indeed—And what say you to—This is my wife—Can appropriation more than for the minute the hour or the day exist Or among so disinterested a people can a man say even of the woman he loves—She is mine
We paused—I own Louisa I found myself at a loss but Frank soon gave a very satisfactory reply
You have started a question of infinite importance which perhaps I am not fully prepared to answer I doubt whether in that better state of human society to which I look forward with such
ardent aspiration the intercourse of the sexes will be altogether promiscuous and unrestrained or whether they will admit of something that may be denominated marriage The former may perhaps be the truth but it is at least certain that in the sense in which we understand marriage and the affirmation—This is my wife—neither the institution nor the claim can in such a state or indeed in justice exist Of all the regulations which were ever suggested to the mistaken tyranny of selfishness none perhaps to this day have surpassed the despotism of those which undertake to bind not only body to body but soul to soul to all futurity in despite of every possible change which our vices and our virtues might effect or however numerous
the secret corporal or mental imperfections might prove which a more intimate acquaintance should bring to light
Then you think that some stipulation or bargain between the sexes must take place in the most virtuous ages
In the most virtuous ages the word bargain like the word promise will be unintelligible—We cannot bargain to do what is wrong nor can we though there should be no bargain forbear to do what is right without being unjust
Whence it results that marriage as a civil institution must ever be an evil
Yes It ought not to be a civil institution It is the concern of the individuals who consent to this mutual association and they ought not to be prevented
from beginning suspending or terminating it as they please
Clifton addressed himself to me—What say you to this doctrine madam Does it not shock does it not terrify you
As far as I have considered it no It appears to be founded on incontrovertible principles and I ought not to be shocked that some of my prejudices are opposed or at being reminded that men have not yet attained the true means of correcting their own vices
Surely the consequences are alarming The man who only studied the gratification of his desires would have a new wife each new day and the unprotected fair would be abandoned to all the licentiousness of libertinism
Frank again replied—Then you think the security of women would increase with their imagined increase of danger and that an unprincipled man who even at present if he be known is avoided and despised would then find a more ready welcome because as you suppose he would have more opportunities to injure
I must own that the men fit to be trusted with so much power are in my opinion very few indeed
You are imagining a society as perverse and vitiated as the present I am supposing one wholly the contrary I know too well that there are men who because unjust laws and customs worthy of barbarians have condemned helpless women to infamy for the loss of
that which under better regulations and in ages of more wisdom has been and will again be guilt to keep I know sir I say that the present world is infested by men who make it the business and the glory of their lives to bring this infamy upon the very beings for whom they feign the deepest affection—If ever patience can forsake me it will be at the recollection of these demons in the human form who come tricked out in all the smiles of love the protestations of loyalty and the arts of hell unrelentingly and causelessly to prey upon confiding innocence Nothing but the malverse selfishness of man could give being or countenance to such a monster Whatever is good exquisite or precious we are individually taught to grasp at and
if possible to secure but we have each a latent sense that this principle has rendered us a society of detestable misers and therefore to rob each other seems almost like the sports of justice
For which reason sir were I a father I think I should shudder to hear you instructing my daughters in your doctrines
I perceive you wholly misconceive me and I very seriously request pray observe sir I very seriously request you to remember that I would not teach any mans daughters so mad a doctrine as to indulge in sensual appetites or foster a licentious imagination I am not the apostle of depravity While men shall be mad foolish and dishonest enough to be vain of bad principles women may
be allowed to seek such protection as bad laws can afford—It is an eternal truth that the wisdom of man is superior to the strength of lions but I would not therfore turn an infant into a lions den
I am glad to be undeceived I thought it was scarcely possible you should mean what your words seemed to imply—At present I understand you and I again confess my surprise to find so much consistency and so many powerful arguments on a question in favour of which I thought nothing rational could be advanced You have afforded me food for reflection and I thank you I shall not easily forget what has been said
Tell me my dear Louisa are you not delighted with this dialogue and with the candour the force of thinking and what is still better the virtuous fears of your brother His mind revolted at the mischief which it seemed to forebode he was happy at being undeceived And with respect to argument I doubt whether he forgot any one of the most apparently formidable objections to what is called the levelling system But he was pleased to learn that this is only giving a good cause a bad name Such a system is infinitely more opposite to levelling than the present since the very essence of it is that merit shall be the only claimant and shall be certain of preeminence
The satisfaction I feel my friend is
beyond expression To have my hopes revived and daily strengthened after fearing they must all be relinquished increases the pleasure It is great and would be unmixed but for—Well well—Let Clifton but proceed and Frank will no longer say—To the end of time— You know the rest Louisa—All good be with you
A W ST IVES
P S
I thought I had forgotten something When Frank had retired your brother with delightful candour praised the great perspicuity as well as strength with which he argued He added there was one circumstance in particular in his principles concerning marriage although they had at first appeared
very alarming which was highly satisfactory and this was the confidence they inspired
Nothing he said gave his nature so much offence as the suspicions with which at present our sex view the men About two years ago he had a partiality for a Neapolitan lady and thought himself in love with her but in this he was mistaken it was rather inclination than passion He knew not at that time what it was to love Neither this Neapolitan lady though beautiful and highly accomplished nor any other woman his feelings told him could inspire pure affection who was incapable of confiding in herself and wanting this selfconfidence of confiding in her lover Suspicion originates
in a consciousness of self defect Those who cannot trust themselves cannot be induced to trust others
Thus justly Louisa did he continue to reason Nor could I forbear to apply the doctrine to myself I have been too distrustful of him my conscience accused me and I am resolved to remedy the fault I have always held suspicion to be the vice of mean and feeble minds but it is less difficult to find rules by theory than to demonstrate them by practice
I am sorry my dear Louisa to hear that the infirmities of Mrs Clifton increase But these are evils for which we can at present find no remedy and to which we must therefore submit with patience and resignation
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
I WILL not suppose Fairfax you seek to compliment me when you say you enjoy the exuberant heat of soul the fire that pervades my epistles I am glad you do I shall not think the worse of your talents Many a line have I written in all the burst of feeling and
not a few in all the blaze of wit and have said to myself—Should he not understand me now—Why if he should not dulness everlasting be his portion—But you take the sure way to keep up my ardour While I perceive you continue to enjoy I shall continue to be communicative A sympathetic yawner I may be but I do not believe I am often the first to begin
I knew not half my own merits I act my part to admiration Tis true the combining circumstances are all favourable I must be a dunce indeed if i• such a school I should want chicanery Our disputations have been continual nor have I ever failed to turn them on the most convenient topics But none of them have equalled
the last managed as it was with dexterity by me and in the very spirit I wished by my opponents I speak in the plural for I took care to have them both present Several remarks which I had heard from him assured me he would second my plan which was no less than to prove—marriage a farce—Would you have believed Fairfax I should have had the temerity to step upon a rock so slippery and to have requested this Archimago of Adams journeymen Adam you know being the worlds headgardener to stay and lend me his support—Yet thus audacious was I and courage as it ought has been crowned with success
The thought was suggested by themselves and had you or I or any of us
vile marriage haters been declaiming against the saffron god and his eternal shackles I doubt whether the best of us could have said any thing half so much to the purpose—Is it not excellent—
Then had you heard me preach ay me myself against libertines and libertinism
By the by Don Cabbageplant had the insolence to say two or three devilish severe things dishonourable to the noble fraternity of us knights of the bedchamber which if I forget may woman never more have cause to remember me
However I brought him to own—I—Do laugh by my very great apprehensions of the effects of such a doctrine that though marriage be a bad
thing it is quite necessary at present for the defence of the weaker vessels and modest maidenhood Ay and I applauded him for his honest candour I was glad I had misunderstood him Thanked him for all his profound information In short made him exactly what I wished my tool And a hightempered tool he is by the aid of which I will shew myself a most notable workman—
Not but the fellows eye was upon me I could observe him prying endeavouring to search and probe me But I came too well prepared Instead of shrinking from the encounter my brow contracted increasing indignation and my voice grew louder as I stood forth the champion of chaste virginity and
fanctimonious wedlock—The scene in the very critical sense of the phrase was high comedy—
It was well Fairfax they went no farther than Paris had either of them only reached Turin I had been half undone And had they touched at Naples Rome Venice or half a dozen other fair and flourishing cities my character for a pretty behaved demure and virtuous gentleman had been irremediably ruined
Upon my soul I cannot put it out of my head—Had you heard me remonstrate what a horrid thing it would be to have marriage destroyed and us honest fellows turned loose among the virgins from whom we should catch and ravish each a new damsel every new day and
had you seen what a fine serious undertakers face I put upon the business your heart would have chuckled To the day of your death it would never have been forgotten
Perhaps you will wonder how I could draw such a doctrine from these spinners of hypothesis I will tell you I had heard them severally maintain—Try to guess what—Not in seven years though you were to do nothing else—You I suppose like me have heard that liberty security and property are the three main pillars of political happiness—Well then these professors maintain that individual property is a general evil—What is more they maintain it by such arguments as would puzzle college council or senate to refute But that I
am determined never to torment my brain about such quips and quillets may I turn Turk if they would not have made a convert of me and have persuaded me that an estate of ten thousand a year was a very intolerable thing
My intention was to keep my countenance but to laugh at them in my heart most incontinently However I soon found my side of the question was not so perfectly beyond all doubt nor theirs quite so ridiculous as I had imagined
Tis true I went predetermined to be convinced and to take all they should tell me for gospel I had a conclusion of my own to draw and if I could but lead to that I cared not how much I granted
I know not whether this predisposition in me was of any advantage to their argument though I think it was not for so ready was the solution to every difficulty I boldly ventured to state objections which I meant to have kept out of sight lest I should myself overturn a system that suited my purpose I perceived their eagerness saw there was no danger that they should stop at trifles even if I should happen to throw them a bone to pick and the readiness of each reply raised my curiosity I fearlessly drew out my heavy artillery which they with ease and safety as fearlessly dismounted With a breath my strong holds were all puffed down like so many houses of cards
By this however my main business
was done more effectually We came to it by fair deduction It was not abruptly introduced it was major minor and consequent—All individual property is an evil—Marriage makes woman individual property—Therefore marriage is an evil—Could there be better logic
As for his saving clause that marriage in these times of prejudice and vice I have the whole cant by rote Fairfax is a necessary evil leave me to do that away What Is she not a heroine And can I not convince her that to act according to a bad system when there is a better were to descend to the ways of the vulgar Can I not teach her how superior she is to the pretty misses who conform to such mistaken laws Shall she want the courage and the generosity
to set the first good example How often have I seen her eyes sparkle her bosom heave and her zeal break forth in virtuous resolutions to encounter any peril to obtain a worthy purpose And can there be a more worthy
Curse upon these qualms of conscience Never before did I feel any thing so teazing so tormenting And knowing what I know remembering what I never can forget the slights injuries and insults I have received how I came to feel them now is to me wholly inconceivable She is acting it is true with what she calls the best and purest of intentions toward me she believes them to be such she sometimes almost obliges me to believe them such myself She tortures me by half constraining me to
revere the virtues in favour of which she harangues so divinely But shall I like a poor uxorious lackadaisy driveller sit down satisfied with a divided heart—I—Has she not with her own lips under her own hand avowed and signed her contumelious guilt her audacious preference of a rival—A mean a base a vulgar rival—And after this shall my projects suffer impediment from cheesecurd compassion—Shall the querulous voice of conscience arrest my avenging arm—No Fairfax—It cannot be Though my heart in its anger could not accuse her of a single crime beside that alone that damning preference would be allsufficient—The furies have no stings that equal this recollection
I have been throwing up my sashes striding across my room and construing ten lines of Seneca and my pulse again begins to beat more temperately
Let us argue the point with this pert unruly marplot conscience of mine
It was not at first without considerable reluctance and even pain that I began to plot I almost abhorred reducing her to the level of the sex not one of whom was ever yet her equal But she used me ill Fairfax Yes she used me ill and you well know that want of resentment is want of courage None but pitiful contemptible nosouled fellows
forget insults till ample vengeance have been taken And shall conscience insolently pretend to contradict the decree
Beside I could not but remember our old maxims the Cyprian battles our jovial corps had fought and the myrtle wreaths each wight had won Should I the leader the captain of the band be the first to fly my colours Was it not our favourite axiom that he who could declare upon his honour he had found a generous woman who never had attempted once to deceive trifle with or play him trick should still be acknowledged a companion of our order even though he were to marry but that all coquetry all tergiversation all wrongs however slight were unpardonable
and only one way to be redressed What answer can conscience give to that
Your letters too are another stimulalative You detail the full true and particular account of your amorous malefactions and vaunt of petty obstacles petty arts and petty triumphs over Signoras and Madames who advance challenge you to the field and give battle purposely to be overcome Their whole resistance is but to make you feel how great an Alexander you are and that having vanquished them you are invincible As you will certainly never meet with an Anna St Ives tis possible you may die in that opinion But I tell you Fairfax if you compare these practised Amazons to my heroine you are
in a most heterodox and damnable error of which if you do not timely repent your soul will never find admission into the lovers Elysium
Bear witness however to my honesty of women I allow her to be the most excellent but still a woman and not as I foolishly for a while supposed an absolute goddess No no Madam can curvet and play her pranks though of totally a different kind and being almost mortal at present mere mortal must become in despite of conscience and its green sickness physiognomy
At first I knew her not and unwilling to encounter logic in a gauze cap I ceased to oppose her arguments and thought to conciliate her by resolving to be of her creed What could be more
generous But no forsooth The veil was too thin To pretend conviction when it was not felt and to be satisfied with arguments before I had heard them were all insufficient for her The prize could be gained only by him who could answer the enigmas of the Sphinx I must enter the lists of cavil and run a tilt at wrangling ere the lady would bestow the meed of conquest Can conscience pretend to palliate conduct like this
I then turned my thoughts to a new project and endeavoured to overpower her by passion by excess of ardour by tenderness and importunity They had a temporary effect but I found them equally inefficacious Nor was the art by which I had oftenest been successful
forgotten though I confess that with her from the beginning it afforded me but little hope I tried to familiarize her to freedoms I began with her hands but she soon taught me that even her hands were sacred they were not to be treated with familiarity nor to be kissed and pressed like other hands Let conscience if it can tell me why
In fine while to this insolent pedagogue she has been all honeysuckle sweet marjoram and hearts ease to me she has been rue wormwood and hellebore him praising me reproving confiding in him suspecting me and as the very summit and crown of injury proclaiming him the possessor the master of her admiration or in plain English of her heart
And now if after this impartial this cool this stoic examination Mr Conscience should ever again be impertinent enough to open his lips I am determined without the least ceremony to kick him out of doors
When this famous conference of which I told you some half an hour ago was ended and our president our monarch of morals and mulberries had quitted his chair and withdrawn I played an aftergame of no small moment After pronouncing a panegyric on the gentleman as a legislator fit for truth and me I read the lady a modest lecture on confidence informed her of almost the exact quantity which I expected she would repose in me and declaimed with eloquence and effect against those suspicious
beauties who always regard us honest fellows as so many naughty goblins who like the Ethiopian monster voraciously devour every VirginAndromeda they meet But as I tell you I did it modestly I kept on my guard watched the moment to press forward or to retreat and wielded my weapons with dexterity and fuccess
Poor girl Is it not a pity that the very shield in which she confides her perfect honesty and sincerity should be destined to fall upon and overwhelm her—Thus says counsellor Sentiment and counsellor Sentiment is a great orator—But what say I Why I say so have the Fates decreed and therefore let the Fates look to it tis no concern of mine I am but their willing instrument
These however are but the preliminaries the preparations for the combat Ere long I shall be armed at all points and what is better by her own fair hands Nor do I know how soon I may begin the attack I have been casting about to send this superintendant of the cardinal virtues this captain of casuists and caterpillars out of the way and I think I have hit upon a tolerably bold and ingenious stratagem I say bold because I perceive it is not without danger but I doubt I cannot devise a better Without naming or appearing to mean myself I have fuggested to him by inventing a tale of two friends of mine what a noble and disinterested thing it would be for him to go down into the country and prevail on his father
to remove all obstacles to our marriage—
How Say you Is marriage your plan And if not is not that the way to ruin all
There is the danger I talked of but I do not think it great The scoundrel gardener I mean the father who is heartily despised by every body is desirous that his son should marry Anna I know not whether I ever before mentioned this sublime effort of impudence The cunning rascal has so long been the keeper of Sir Arthurs purse that it is supposed two thirds of the contents have glided into his own pocket This is the reason of the delay on Sir Arthurs part which at present I do not wish to shorten That this son of a grub catcher a Demosthenes
though he be should prevailon such a father if he were to go down as I hope he will is but little probable However should the least prognostic of such a miracle appear I have my remedy prepared I will generously have a letter written to the senior overseer of the gravel walks which if the character I have heard of him be not wholly false shall revive all his hopes and put an end to compliance
In Italy where amorous plotting is the national profession I was not easily circumvented and here where another gunpowder treason would as soon be suspected as such gins and snares at least by these very honest and sublime simpletons I laugh at the supposition of being unearthed
One word more I think I observe in this knight of Gotham this Sir Arthur a more cordial kind of yearning toward our young prince of Babel land than formerly a sort of desire to be more intimate with him of which by the by the youth is not very prompt to admit and an effort to treat him with more respect himself by way as it were of setting a good example to others If my conjectures are right the threats of the old muckworm father have shaken the crazy nerves of the baronet and I half suspect there is something more of meaning at the bottom of this Were it so were he to attempt to discard me it would indeed add another spur to the fury of revenge An affront so deep given by
this poor being this essence of insignificance would make revenge itself hot unsatiable revenge grow more hot madden more and thirst even after blood—Patience foams at the supposition
Thank heaven I hear the noisy postman with his warning bell which obliges me in good time to conclude and cool these fermenting juices of mine
C CLIFTON
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London Grosvenor Street
MY mind Oliver is harassed by a variety of doubts I believe I shall soon be down at Wenbourne Hill and of course shall then not fail to meet thee and visit thy most worthy father
The reason of my journey originates in the doubts I mentioned I am angry
with myself for feeling alarms at one moment which appear impossibilities the next If my fears have any foundation this Clifton is the deepest the most hardened fiendlike hypocrite imagination can paint—But it cannot be—Surely it cannot—I am guilty heinously guilty for enduring such a thought—So much folly and vice combined with understanding and I may say genius so uncommon is a supposition too extravagant too injurious
And yet it is strange Oliver—A conduct so suddenly altered so totally opposite to old and inveterate habits is scarcely reconcileable to the human character But if dissimulation can be productive of this is truth less powerful No—Truth is omnipotent Yet who
ever saw it hasty in its progress My only hope in this case is that the fuperiority of his mind has rendered him an exception to general rules
But what could he propose by his hypocrisy—I cannot tell—His passions are violent and ungovernable and are or very lately have been in full vigour—Again and again tis strange
But what of this—Why these fears Can she be spotted tinged by the stain of unsanctified desire—Never—The pure chastity of her soul is superior to attaint—Yet—Who can say—Wilfully her mind can never err but who can affirm that even she may not be deceived and may not act erroneously from the most holy motives
Perhaps Oliver it is my own situation
my own desires but half subdued in which these doubts take birth If so they are highly culpable
Be it as it may there is a duty visibly chalked out for me by circumstances Her present situation is surely a state of danger To see them married would now give me delight It would indeed be the delight of despair of gloom almost approaching horror But of that I must not think My father is the cause of the present delay I fear I cannot remove this impediment but it becomes me to try
Though I had before conceived the design this conduct has even been suggested to me by Clifton and in a mode that proves he can be artful if he please
Yet does it not likewise prove him to be in earnest
We have lately had several conversations one in particular which even while it seemed to place him in an amiable sincere and generous light excited some of the very doubts and terrors of which I speak—If he be a hypocrite he guards himself with a tenfold mask—It cannot—No—It cannot be—
I mean to speak to Sir Arthur concerning my journey but not to inform him of its purport it would have the face of insult to tell him I was going to be his advocate with his servant Not to mention that he has lately treated me with increasing and indeed unusual kindness If I do make an effort however
it shall be a strenuous one though my hopes that it should be effectual are very few My decision is not yet final but in my next thou wilt probably learn the result Farewell
F HENLEY
P S
My brain is so busied by its fears that I forgot to caution thee against a mistake into which it is probable this letter may lead I mentioned in one of my last the project I had conceived of leaving England Do not imagine I have abandoned a design on which the more I reflect the more I am intent The great end of life is to benefit community My mind in its present situation is too deeply affected freely and without incumbrance to exert itself—This
is weakness—But not the less true Oliver We are at present so imbued in prejudice have drunken so deeply of the cup of error that after having received taints so numerous and ingrained to wish for perfect consistency in virtue I doubt were vain Here or at the antipodes alike I should remember her but I should not alike be so often tempted and deluded by false hopes the current of thought would not so often meet with impediments to arrest divide and turn it aside
I have studied to divine in what land or among what people whether savage or such as we call polished the energies of mind might be most productive of good But this is a discovery which I have yet to make The reasons are so numerous
on each side that I have formed a plan for a kind of double effort I think of sailing for America where I may aid the struggles of liberty may freely publish all which the efforts of reason can teach me and at the same time may form a society of savages who seem in consequence of their very ignorance to have a less quantity of error and therefore to be less liable to repel truth than those whose information is more multifarious A merchant with whom by accident I became acquainted and who is a man of no mean understanding approves and has engaged to promote my plan But of this if I come to Wenbourne Hill we will talk further Once more Oliver adieu
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Doverstreet
COME to my aid Fairfax encourage me feed my vanity let hungry ambition banquet and allow me to be a hero lest I relent for were I not or Lucifer or Coke Clifton tis certain I should not persevere By the host of heaven Fairfax but she is a divine
creature She steals upon the soul A heart of rock could not resist her Nor are they wiles nor womans lures nor blandishments of tricksey dimples nor captivating smiles with which she forms her adamantine fetters No tis the open soul of honesty true sincere and unrelentingly just to me to herself to all tis that enchanting kindness that heavenly suavity which never forsakes her that equanimity of smiling yet obstinate fortitude that hilarity of heart that knows not gloom because it knows not evil that inscrutable purity which rests secure that all like itself are natively immaculate that—Pshaw—I can find no words find you imagination therefore and think not I will labour at impossibility You have
read of ancient vestals of the virgins of Paradise and of demideities that tune their golden harps on high—Read again—And having travelled with prophets and apostles to the heaven of heavens descend and view her and invent me language to describe her if you can
Curse on this Frank Henley But for him my vengeance never would have been roused Never would the fatal sentence have passed my lips—Tis now irrevocable—Sure as the lofty walls of Troy were doomed by gods and destiny to smoke in ruins so surely must the highsouled Anna fall—Ill starred wench—I Fairfax like other conquerors cannot shut pity from my bosom While I cry havoc I could almost
weep could look reluctant down on devastation which myself had made and heave a sigh and curse my proper prowess—In love and war alike such Fairfax is towering ambition It must have victims its reckless altars ask a full and large supply and when perchance a snowy lamb spotless and pure bedecked for sacrifice in all the artless pomp of unsuspecting innocence is brought bright burns the flame the white clouds curl and mantle up to heaven and there ambition proudly sits and snuffs with glut of lusty delight the grateful odour
I know your tricks Fairfax you are one of the doubtful doctors you love to catch credulity upon your hook I hear fat laughter gurgling in your throat and
out bolts your threadbare simile—Before the battles won the Brentford hero sings Te Deum—But dont be wasteful of the little wit you have Do I not tell you it is decreed When was I posted for a vapouring Hector What but the recollections of my reiterated ravings resolves threats and imprecations could keep me steady assailed as I am by gentleness benevolence and saintlike charity
By the agency of subtlety hypocrisy and fraud I seek to rob her of what the world holds most precious By candour philanthropy and a noble expansion of heart she seeks to render me all that is superlatively great and good—Why did she not seek all this in a less offensive way Why did she oblige me
to become a disputant with a plebeian—Disputant—What do I say—Worse worse—Rival—Devil—Myriads of virtues could not atone the crime—Yet in this deep guilt she perseveres and glories—Can I forget—Fear me not nor rank my defeat among things possible—Be patient and lend an ear
To one sole object all my efforts point her mind must be prepared ay so that when the question shall be put chaste as that mind is it scarcely shall receive a shock Such is the continual tendency of my discourse Her own open and undisguised manners are my guide Not a principle she maintains but which by my cunning questions and affected doubts pushed to an extreme
adds links to the chain in which I mean to lead her captive
Perhaps Fairfax you will tell me this is the old artifice and that the minds of all women who can be said to have any mind must thus be inveigled to think lightly of the thing they are about to lose Granted And yet the difference is infinite They are brought to think thus lightly of chastity but should you or any one of the gallant phalanx attempt to make Anna St Ives so think she would presently cry buzz to the dull blockhead and give him his eternal dismission
Virtue with her is a real existence and as such must be adored Her passions are her slaves and in this and
this alone the lovely tyrant is the advocate of despotism She soon taught me that common arts would be treated by her not merely with determined and irrevocable repulse but with direct contempt Some very feeble essays presently satisfied me No encroachments of the touch no gloting of the eye no well feigned tremblings and lovers palpitations would for an instant be suffered by her Take the following as a specimen of my mode of attack
Among her variety of hypotheses she has one on mutability
Little she says as we know of matter and spirit we still know enough to perceive they are both instantaneously eternally and infinitely changing Of what the world has been through this series of
never beginning never ending mutation she can form nothing more than conjecture yet she cannot but think that the golden age is a supposition treated at present with ridicule it does not deserve By the laws of necessity mind unless counteracted by accidents beyond its control is continually progressive in improvement With some such accidents we are tolerably well acquainted Such are those which have been destructive of its progress notwithstanding the high attainments it had made in Greece and Rome The ruins still existing in Egypt are wonderful proofs of what it once was there though Egypt is at present almost unequalled in ignorance and depravity Who then
shall affirm changes still more extraordinary have not happened She has no doubt some revolution in the planetary system excepted that men will attain a much higher degree of innocence length of life happiness and wisdom than have ever yet been dreamed of either by historian fabulist or poet for causes which formerly were equal to the effects then produced are now rendered impotent by the glorious art of printing which spreads preserves and multiplies knowledge in despite of ignorance false zeal and despotism
Such was her discourse and thus vast were her views Nay urged on by my questions by the consequences which resulted from her own doctrines and by
the ardour of emanating benevolence she astonished me by her sublime visions for she proceeded to prove from seemingly fair deduction
that men should finally render themselves immortal should become scarcely liable to moral mistake should all act from principles previously demonstrated and therefore never contend should be one great family without a ruler because in no need of being ruled should be incapable of bodily pain or passion and should expend their whole powers in tracing moral and physical cause and effect which being infinite in their series will afford them infinite employment of the most rational and delightful kind
Oh How did the sweet enthusiast
glow ay and make me glow too while with a daring but consistent hand she sketched out this bold picture of illusion
But while the lovely zealot thus descanted on splendid and half incomprehensible themes what did I Why when I found her at the proper pitch when I saw benevolence and love of human kind beaming with most ardour in her eye and pouring raptures from her lip I then recalled her to her beloved golden age her times of primitive simplicity made her inform me what lovers then were and what marriage and what the bonds were which hearts so affectionate and minds so honest and pure demanded of each other
What think you could her answers to
all these questions be What but such as I wished Could lovers like these suspect each other Could they basely do the wrong to ask for bond or pledge Or if they wanted the virtue to charm could they still more basely ask rewards they did not merit Could they with the wretched selfish jealousy of a modern marriagemaker seek to cadaverate affection and to pervert each other into a utensil a commodity a thing appropriate to self and liable with other lumber to be cast aside No Fairfax she played fairly and deeply into my hand She created exactly such a pair of lovers as I could have desired for with respect to the truth and constancy with which she endowed them if I cannot be the thing I can wear the garb
ay and it shall become me too shall sit dégagé upon me and be thought my native dress
Think not that I am a mere listener far the reverse I throw in masterly touches which while they seem only to heighten her picture produce the full effect by me intended Thus when she described the faith and truth and love of the innocents of her own creation how did I declaim against the abuse to which such doctrine though immutably true was liable
Alas madam said I
had the unprincipled youths with which these times abound your powers of argument with their own principles how dreadful would be the effect How
many unsuspecting hearts would they betray
I am once more just returned from the palace of Alcina I broke off at the end of my last paragraph to attend my charmer and here again am I detesting myself for want of resolution and detesting myself still more for having made a resolution for having undertaken that which I am so eternally tempted to renounce Your sneer and your laugh are both ready—I know you Fairfax—The gentleman is sounding a retreat The enterprise is too difficult—No—I tell you no no no—But
I am almost afraid it is too damnable
I pretended to be exceedingly anxious concerning the delay and afflicted at not hearing any thing more from Sir Arthur If I did not do this it might be a clue to lead her to suspect hypocrisy considering how very ardent I was at the commencement And to say the truth I am weary enough of waiting though it is not my wish to be relieved by any expedition of Sir Arthurs who as I hinted to you before does not appear to be in the least hurry and whose unction for the gardeners son increases
But had you heard her console me Had you seen her kindness The tear glistening in her eye while she entreated
me to consider delay as a fortunate event which tended to permanent and ineffable happiness had you I say beheld her soul for it was both visible and audible Fairfax though you are the marauder of marriage land and the sworn foe of virginity even you would have pardoned my tergiversation
Did you never behold the sun burst forth from behind the riding clouds The scene that was gloomy dark and dismal is suddenly illumined what was obscure becomes conspicuous the bleak hills smile the black meadows assume a bright verdure quaking shadows dare no longer stay cold damps are dispelled and in an instant all is visible clear and radiant So vanish doubts when she begins to speak Thus in her presence
do the feelings glow and thus is gloom banished from the soul till all is genial warmth and harmony
These being my feelings now when I am escaped when I am beyond the circle of her sorceries think Fairfax be just and think how seductive how dangerous an enemy I have to encounter—Listen and judge
Oh Clifton—She speaks Listen I say to her spells—
Oh Clifton daily and hourly do I bless this happy accident this delay I think with the heroic archbishop I could have held my right hand firmly till the flames had consumed it could I but have brought to pass what this blessed event has already almost accomplished To behold your mind what
it is and to recollect what it so lately was is bliss unutterable I consider myself now as destined to be yours but whether I am or am not is perhaps a thing of little moment Let self be forgotten and all its petty interests What am I What can I be compared to what you may become The patriot the legislator the statesman the reconciler of nations the dispenser of truth and the instructor of the human race for to all these you are equal As for me however ardent however great my goodwill I cannot have the same opportunities Beside I must be just to myself and you and it delights me to declare I believe you have a mind capable of conceptions more vast than mine of plans more
daring and systems more deep and of soaring beyond me You have the strong memory the keen sensibility and the rapid imagination which form the poet It is my glory to repeat that your various powers when called forth have as variously astonished me To bid you persevere were now to wrong you for I think I dare affirm you cannot retreat You have at present seen too much thought too much known too much ever to forget In private you will be the honour of your family and the delight of your wife and in public the boast of your country and the admiration of the virtuous and the wise
I fell on my knee to the speaking deity She seemed delivering oracles
My passions rose my heart was full her eulogium made it loath and abhor its own deceit the words—Madam I am a villain—bolted to my lips there they quivering lingered in excruciating suspense and at last slunk back like cowards half wishing but wholly ashamed to do their office
By the immortal powers Fairfax it was past resisting Why should I not be all she has described The hero the legislator the great leader of this little world Ay why not She seemed to prophesy She has raised a flame in me which if encouraged might fertilize or desolate kingdoms Body of Caesar I know not what to say
Tis true she has treated me ill nay vilely It cannot be denied But ill
treatment itself from her is superior to all the maukish kindness which folly and caprice endeavour to lavish Fairfax would you did but behold her My heart was never so assailed before
My resolution is shaken I own but it is not obliterated No I will think again My very soul is repugnant to the supposition of leaving its envenomed tumours unassuaged and its angered stabs unavenged Yet if healed they could be she surely possesses that healing art—Once more I will think again
What you tell me in the Postscript to your last concerning Count Caduke Consult your dictionary or to save yourself trouble read Count Crazy alias Beaunoir is wholly unintelligible to
me But as you say the name of the gardeners son was several times mentioned by him I shall take an immediate opportunity of interrogating the squire of shrubs who I am certain from principle will when asked tell me all he knows
Apropos of poetry The panegyric of this sylph of the sunbeams gave me an impulse which I could not resist and the following was the offspring of my headlong and impetuous muse for such the hussey is whenever the fit is upon her I commit it as it may happen to your censure or applause with this stipulation if you do not like it either alter it till you do or write me another which both you and I shall like better If that
be not fair and rational barter I know nothing either of trade logic or common sense
ANACREONTIC
I
WHEN by the gently gliding stream
On banks where purple violets spring
I see my Delias beauties beam
I hear my lovely Delia sing
When hearts combine
And arms entwine
When fond caresses amrous kisses
Yield the height of human blisses
Entrancd I gaze and sighing say
Thus let me love my life away
II
Or when the jocund bowl we pass
And joke and wit and whim abound
When song and catch and friend and lass
In sparkling wine we toast around
When Bull and Pun
Rude riot run
And finding still the mirth increasing
Pealing laughter roars sans ceasing
I peal and roar and pant and say
Thus let me laugh my life away
III
When dreams of fame my fancy fill
Sweet soothing dreams of verse and rhyme
That mark the poets happy skill
And bid him live to latest time
Each rising thought
With music fraught
All full all flowing nothing wanting
All harmonious all enchanting
Oh thus in rapt delights I say
Thus let me sing my life away
IV
Oh lovely woman genrous wine
These potent pleasures let me quaff
Thy raptures wit oh make them mine
Oh let me drink and love and laugh
In flowing verse
Let me rehearse
How well Ive used your bounteous treasure
Then at last when full my measure
Tho pale my lip Ill smile and say
Ive livd the best of lives away
C CLIFTON
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London Grosvenor Street
WITHIN a week Oliver we shall once more meet What years of separation may afterward follow is more than I can divine I surely need not tell thee that this thought of separation were it not opposed by principle would indeed be painful and that it is at moments almost
too mighty for principle itself But we are the creatures of an omnipotent necessity and there can be but little need to remind thee that a compliance with the apparently best should ever be an unrepining and cheerful act of duty
I have had a conversation with Sir Arthur very singular in its kind which has again awakened sensations in their full force that had previously cost me many bitter struggles to allay I began with informing him of my intention to go down to WenbourneHill after which I proceeded to tell him it was my design to embark for America
He seemed surprised and said he hoped not
I answered I had reflected very fully on the plan and that I believed it was
scarcely probable any reason should occur which could induce me to change my purpose
The thing he replied might perhaps not be so entirely improbable as I supposed His family had great obligations to me I had even risked my life on various occasions for them They thought my talents very extraordinary In fine Oliver the good old gentleman endeavoured to say all the kind and as he deemed them grateful things his memory could supply and added that should I leave England without affording them some opportunity to repay their obligations they should be much grieved There were perhaps two or three very great difficulties in the way but still he was not sure they might not
be overcome Not that he could say any thing positively for matters were he must own in a very doubtful state He was himself indeed very considerably uneasy and undetermined but he certainly wished me exceedingly well and so with equal certainty at present did all his family His daughter his son himself were all my debtors
The good old gentlemans heart overflowed Oliver and by its ebullitions raised a tumult in mine which required every energy it possessed to repel What could I answer but that I had done no more for his family than what it was my duty to do for the greatest stranger and that if gratitude be understood to mean a
remembrance of favours received I and my family had for years indubitably been the receivers
He still persisted however in endeavouring to dissuade me from the thought of quitting the kingdom Not finding me convinced by his arguments he hesitated with an evident desire to say something which he knew not very well how to begin All minds on such occasions are under strong impulses My own wish that he should be explicit was eager and I excited him to proceed At last he asked if he might put a question to me assuring me it was far from his intention to offend but that he had some uneasy doubts which he could be very glad to have removed
I desired him to interrogate me freely and to assure himself that I would be guilty of no dissimulation
He knew my sincerity he said but if when I heard I should think any thing in what he asked improper I past dispute had a right to refuse
I answered that I suspected or rather was convinced I had no such right and requested him to begin
He again stammered and at last said—I think Mr Henley I have remarked some degree of esteem between you and my daughter—
He stopped—His desire not to wound my feelings was so evident that I determined to relieve him and replied—
I believe sir I can now divine the subject of your question You would
be glad to know if any thing have passed between us and what Perhaps you ought to have been told without asking but I am certain that concealment at present would be highly wrong
I then repeated as accurately as my memory would permit which is tolerably tenacious on this fubject all which Anna and I had reciprocally said and done It was impossible Oliver to make this recapitulation with apathy My feelings were awakened and I assure thee the emotions of Sir Arthur were as lively as in such a mind thou couldst well suppose The human heart seems to be meliorated and softened by age He wept a thing with him certainly not usual at the recital of his daughters heroic resolves in favour of
duty and at her respect for parental prejudices Her dread of rendering him unhappy made him even sob and burst into frequent interjections of—
She is a dear girl She is a heavenly girl I always loved her She is the delight of my life my souls treasure From her infancy to this hour she was always an angel
After hearing me fully confirm him in his esteem and affection for so superlative a daughter he added—You tell me Mr Henley that you freely informed my daughter you thought it was even her duty to prefer you to all mankind even though her father and friends should disapprove the match
I did sir I spoke from conviction
and should have thought myself culpable had I been silent
Perhaps so But that is very uncommon doctrine
It was not merely that more felicity would have been secured to ourselves but greater good I supposed would result to society
I have heard you explain things of that kind before I do not very well understand them but give me leave to ask—Are you still of the same opinion
I am sir—Not that I am so confident as I was—Mr Clifton has a very astonishing strength of mind and should it be turned to the worthy purposes of which it is capable I dare by no means decide positively in my own
favour and the decision which I now make against him is the result of the intimate acquaintance which I must necessarily have with my own heart added to certain dubious appearances as to his which I know not how to reconcile Of myself I am secure
And of him you have some doubts
I have but I ought in duty to add the appearances of their being unjust are daily strengthened
Sir Arthur paused ruminated and again seemed embarrassed At last he owned he knew not what to say turn which way he would the obstacles were very considerable His mind had really felt more distress within these two months than it had ever known before He could resolve on nothing Yet he
could not but wish I had not been quite so determined on going to America There was no saying what course things might take Mrs Clifton was very ill and in all probability could not live long But again he knew not what to say He certainly wished me very well—Very well—I was an uncommon young man I was a gentleman by nature which for aught he knew might be better than a gentleman by birth The world had its opinions perhaps they were just perhaps unjust He had been used to think with the world but he had heard so much lately that he was not quite so positive as he had been—This Oliver reminded me of the power of truth how it saps the strong holds of error and winds into the heart
and how incessantly its advocates ought to propagate it on every occasion He was not quite so well pleased as he had been with my father but that was no fault of mine he knew I had a very different manner of thinking Still he must say it was what he very little expected He hoped however that things would one way or other go more smoothly and he concluded with taking my hand pressing it very warmly and adding with considerable earnestness—
If you can think of changing your American project pray do—Pray do—
After which he left me with something like a heavy heart
And now Oliver how ought I to act The opposing causes of these doubts and
difficulties in his mind are evident The circumstances which have occurred in my favour being aided by the obstinate selfishness of my father by his acquired wealth and as I suppose by the embroiled state of Sir Arthurs affairs have produced an unhoped sor revolution in the sentiments of Sir Arthur But is it not too late Are not even the most tragical consequences to be feared from an opposition to Clifton Nay if his mind be what his words and behaviour speak would not opposition be unjust Were it not better with severe but virtuous resolution to repel these flattering and probably deceitful hopes than by encouraging them to feed the cankerworm of peace and add new force to the enemy within who rather
stunned than conquered is every moment ready to revive
Neither is Sir Arthur master of events Nor is his mind consistent enough to be in no danger of change
My heart is sufficiently prone to indulge opposite sentiments but it must be silenced it must listen to the voice of truth
Did I but better understand this Clifton I should better know how to decide That he looks up to her with admiration I am convinced She seems to have discovered the true key to his understanding as well as to his affections Even within this day or two I have observed symptoms very much in his favour How do I know but thus influenced he may become the first of mankind The
thought restores me to a sense of right Never Oliver shall self complacency make me guilty of what cannot but be a crime most heinous If such a mind may by these means be gained which would otherwise be lost shall it be extinguished by me Would not an assassination like this outweigh thousands of common murders Well may I shudder at such an act Oliver I am resolved If there be power in words or in reason my father shall comply
As far as I understand the human mind there is and even should he persevere there always must be something to me enigmatical in this instance of its efforts in Clifton Persevere however I most sincerely hope and even believe he
will—But should he not—The supposition is dreadful—Anna St Ives—My heart sinks within me—Can virtue like hers be vulnerable—Surely not—The more pure a woman is in principle the more secure would she be from common seducers But if the man can be found who possesses the necessary though apparently incompatible excess of folly and wisdom there is a mode by which such a woman is more open to the arts of deceit than any other And is not that woman Anna St Ives Nay more if he be not a prodigy of even a still more extraordinary kind is not that man Coke Clifton
He came in the heyday of youthful pride selfsatisfied selfconvinced rooted
in prejudice but abundant in ideas Argument made no impression for where he ought to have listened he laughed The weapons of wit never failed him and while he lanched them at others they recoiled and continually lacerated himself Of this he was insensible he felt them not or felt them but little His haughtiness never slumbered and to oppose him was to irritate not convince For four months he continued pertinaciously the same then without any cause known to me suddenly changed It was indeed too sudden not to be alarming
And yet my firm and cool answer to all this is that hypocrisy so foolish as well as atrocious is all but impossible—
Indeed Oliver I do not seek to wrong him I do not hunt after unfavourable conjectures they force themselves upon me or if I do it is unconsciously The passions are strangely perverse and if I am deceived as I hope I am it is they that misguide me
Clifton has just been with me Some correspondent from Paris has mentioned the visit paid to me instead of him by the Count de Beaunoir but in a dark and unintelligible manner and he came to enquire I confess Oliver while I was answering his interrogatories I seemed to feel that both you and I had drawn a false conclusion relative to secrecy
and that by concealment to render myself the subject of suspicion was an unworthy procedure However as my motives were not indirect whatever my silence might be I answered without reserve and told him all that had passed frankly owning my fears of his irritability as the reason why I did not mention the affair immediately
He laughed at the Counts rhodomontade acknowledged himself obliged to me and allowed that at that time my fears were not wholly causeless He behaved with ease and good humour and left me without appearing to have taken any offence
I shall be with thee on Tuesday I know it will be a day of feasting
to the family and I will do my best endeavour not to cast a damp on the hilarity of benevolence and friendship
F HENLEY
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
ALAS Louisa what are we—What are our affections what our resolves Taken at unguarded moments agitated hurried away by passion how seldom have we for a day together reason to be satisfied with our conduct
Not pleased with myself I doubt I
have given cause of displeasure to your brother My father was in part the occasion for a moment he made me forget myself—Louisa—Frank Henley is going to America He does not lightly resolve and his resolution seems fixed—Good God—I—Louisa—I am afraid I am a guilty creature—Weak—Very weak—And is not weakness guilt—But why should he leave us—Where will he find hearts more alive to his worth
Sir Arthur came to inform me of it he had been conversing with him and had endeavoured but without effect to dissuade him from his purpose He came and begged me to try I perhaps might be more successful
There was a marked significance in his manner and I asked him why
Nay my dear child said he and his heart seemed full you know why Mr Henley has told me why
What sir has he told
Nothing child—Sir Arthur took my hand—Nothing but what is honourable to you—I questioned him and you know he is never guilty of falsehood
No sir he is incapable of it
Well Anna try then to persuade him not to leave us Though he is a very excellent young man I am afraid he has not the best of fathers I begin to feel I have not been so prudent as I might have been and if Mr
Henley were to leave England the father might attribute it to us and—Sir Arthur hesitated—I have received some extraordinary letters from Abimelech of which I did not at first see the full drift but it is now clear every thing corresponds and my conversation with young Mr Henley has confirmed all I had supposed However he is a very good a very extraordinary young gentleman and I could wish he would not go I dont know what may happen
Your brother came in and Sir Arthur left me desiring me as he went to remember what he had said Clifton after an apology asked—Does it relate to me At that moment Frank entered No said I it relates to one who I did not
think would have been so ready to forsake his friends
A thousand thoughts had crowded to my mind a dread of having used him ungenerously unjustly a recollection of all he had done and all he had suffered his enquiring penetrating and unbounded genius his superlative virtues a horror of his being banished his native country by me of his wandering among strangers exposed to poverty perils and death with the conviction in his heart that I had done him wrong—My tumultuous feelings rushed upon me overpowered me and in a moment of enthusiasm I ran to him snatched his hand fell on my knee and exclaimed—For the love of God Mr Henley do not think of leaving us
Clifton like myself could not conquer the first assault of passion he pronounced the word madam in a tone mingled with surprise and severe energy which recalled me to myself—
You see said I turning to him what an unworthy weak creature I am—But Mr Henley has taken the strangest resolution—
What madam said your brother recovering himself and with some pleasantry is he for a voyage to the moon Or does he wait the arrival of the next comet to make the tour of the universe
Nay answered I you must join me and not treat my poor petition with ridicule—You must not go Mr Henley indeed you must not I Mr Clifton my father my brother we will none of
us hear of it We are all your debtors and it would be unjust in you to deprive us of every opportunity of testifying our friendship
Your brother Louisa made an effort worthy of himself repressed the error of his first feelings assumed the gentle aspect of entreaty and kindly joined me
We are indeed your debtors said he to Mr Henley But I hope it is not true I hope there is no danger that you should forsake us Where would you go Where can you be so happy
I mean first replied Frank to go to Wenbourne Hill and after that my intentions are for America
This Louisa brought on a long discussion I and your brother both endeavoured
to convince him it was his duty to remain in England that he could be more serviceable here and would find better opportunities for effecting that good which he had so warmly at heart than in any other country
He answered that though he was not convinced by our arguments he should think it his duty seriously to consider them But we could not make him promise any thing further Previous to his return from Wenbourne Hill he would determine
Indeed Louisa this affair lies very heavily upon my mind I am incessantly accusing myself as the cause of his exile And am I not By the manner of Sir Arthur I am sure he must
have said something very highly in my praise I have gone too far with your brother to recede that is now impossible It would be more flagrant injustice than even the wrong to Frank if a wrong it be and indeed Louisa I dread it is—Indeed I do—I dread it even with a kind of horror
I thought reason would have appeased these doubts ere this but every occasion I find calls them forth with unabated vigour Surely this mental blindness must be the result of neglect Had we but the will the determination it might be removed Oh how reprehensible is my inconsistency
The rapid decline of Mrs Clifton grieves me deeply Your brother too has frequently mentioned it with feelings
honourable to his heart He is now more than ever sensible of her worth He has been with me since I began to write this letter and there is not the least appearance of remaining umbrage on his mind It was indeed but of short duration though too strong and sudden not to be apparent
All kindness peace and felicity be with you
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
I WILL curse no more Fairfax Or if curse I do it shall be at my own fatuity I will not be the dilatory languid ranting moralizing Hamlet of the drama that has the vengeance of hell upon his lips and the charity of heaven
in his heart I will use not speak daggers—
Fairfax I am mad—Raging—The smothered and pentup mania must have vent—What Was not the page sufficiently black before—I am amazed at my own infatuation My very soul spurns at it—But tis past—Deceitful damned sex—Idiot that I was I began to fancy myself beloved—I—Blind deaf insensate driveler—Torpid blockish brainless mammet—Most sublime ass—Oh for a bib and barley sugar with the label Meacock pinned before and behind—
Fairfax I never can forgive my own absurd and despicable stupidity—Marriage—What with a woman in whose eye the perfect impression and hated
form of a mean rival is depicted—In colours glowing hot—Who lives revels triumphs in her heart—I marry such a woman—I—
I had rather be a toad
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others use
I am too full of phrensy Fairfax to tell thee what I mean but she has given me another proof more damning even than all the former of the gluttony with which her soul gorges Her gloating eye devours him ay I being present Nay were I this moment in her arms her arms would be clasping him not me with him she would carouse nor would any thing like me exist—Contagion—Poison and boiling oil—
Never before was patience so put to the proof—My danger was extreme With rage flaming in my heart I was obliged to wear complacency satisfaction and smiles on my countenance
The fellow has determined to ship himself for America—Would it were for the bottomless pit—And had you beheld her panic—St Lukes collected maniacs at the full of the moon could not have equalled her—Twas well indeed her frantic outrage was so violent or I had been detected and all had been lost—As it was I half betrayed myself—The fellows eye glanced at me However it gave me my cue and all things considered I afterward performed to a miracle Her own enthusiastic torrent swept all before it and gave me time
She was in an ecstasy reasoning supplicating conjuring panting I her friends the whole world must join her and join her I did It was the very relief of which hypocrisy stood in need I entreated this straightbacked youth stiff in determination to condescend to lend a pitying ear to our petitions to suffer us to permeate his bowels of compassion and avert this fatal and impending cloud fraught with evils misery and mischief—
But marry no—It could not be—Sentence was passed—He had been at the trouble to make a pair of scales and knew the weight to a scruple of every link in the whole chain of cause and effect—Teach him truly—Advisehim—Move him—When Who How—At
last compliance willing to be royally gracious said Well it would consider—Though there was but little hope—Nothing it had heard had any cogency of perscrutation—But in fine it would be clement and consider
Do you not see this fellow Fairfax Is he not now before your eyes Is he not the most consummate—But why do I trouble myself a moment about him—It is her—Her—
Nor is this all Did that devil that most delights in mischief direct every concurring circumstance they could not all and each be more uniform more coercive to the one great end This poor dotterel Sir Arthur is playing fast and loose with me He has been at his soundings—He—Imbecile animal—Could wish there were not so many difficulties—Is
afraid they cannot be all removed—Has his doubts and his fears—Twenty thousand pounds is a large sum and Mrs Clifton is very positive—His own affairs much less promising than he supposed—Then by a declension of hems hums and has he descended to young Mr Henley—A very extraordinary young gentleman—A very surprising youth—One made on purpose as it were for plumcake days high festivals and raree show—A prodigy—Not begotten born or bred in the dull blindmansbuff way of simple procreation but sent us on a Sunday morning down Jacobs ladder—Then for obligations to him count them who could—He must first study more arithmetic—And as for affection it was a very wayward
thing—Not always in peoples power—There was no knowing what was best—The hand might be given and the heart be wanting—And with respect to whether the opinions of the world ought to be regarded good truth he knew not Marry The world was much more ready to blame others than to amend itself and he had been almost lately persuaded not to care a fico for the world But for his part he was a godly christian and wished all for the best He had faith hope and charity which were enough for one
Do not imagine Fairfax the poor dotard would have dared to betray himself thus far had not I presently perceived his drift and wormed him of
these dismal cogitations of the spirit He beat about and hovered and fluttered and chirped mournfully like the poor infatuated bird that beholds the serpents mouth open into which it is immediately to drop and be devoured However having begun I was determined to make him unburden his whole heart If hereafter he can possibly find courage to face me in order to reproach I have my lesson ready
Out of thy own mouth will I judge thee sinner
Gangrened as my heart is I still find a satisfaction in this self convalescence The lady of mellifluous speech shall suborn no more no more shall lull me into beatific slumbers I have recovered
from my trance and what I dreamed was celestial I will demonstrate to be mere woman
From his own lips I learn that this insolent scoundrel received a visit from the Count de Beaunoir which was intended for me and out of tender pity to my body lest God ild us it should get a drilling he did bestow some trifle of that wit and reason of which he has so great a superflux upon the Count thereby to turn aside his wrathful ire
I heard the gentleman tell his tale and tickle his imagination with the remembrance of his own doctiloquy with infinite composure and whenever I put a question took care first to prepare a smile Every thing was well better could not be
With respect to Monsieur le Comte Ill take some opportunity to whisper a word in his ear It is not impossible Fairfax but that I may visit Paris even within this fortnight Not that I can pretend to predict They shall not think I fly them should any soul among them dare to dream of vengeance I know the Count to be as vain of his skill in the sword as he is of his pair of watch strings his ParisBirmingham snuffbox or the bauble that glitters on his finger I think I can give him a lesson at least I mean to try
My mothers health declines apace I know not whether it may not shortly be necessary for me to visit her The loss of her will afflict me but in all appearance
it is inevitable and I fear not far distant
Once more Fairfax should you again fall in company with the Count and he should give himself the most trifling airs assure him that I will do myself the honour to embrace him within a month at farthest from that date be it when it will
Adieu
C CLIFTON
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London GrosvenorStreet
HE is gone Louisa has left us his purpose unchanged his heart oppressed and his mind intent on promoting the happiness of those by whom he is exiled And what am I or who that I should do him this violence
What validity have these arguments of rank relationship and the worlds opprobrium Are they just He refuted them so he thought and so persists to think And who was ever less partial or more severe to himself
Louisa my mind is greatly disturbed His high virtues the exertion of them for the peculiar protection of me and my family and the dread of committing an act of unpardonable injustice if unjust it be are images that haunt and tantalize me incessantly
If my conclusions have been false and if his asserted claims be true how shall I answer those which I have brought upon myself The claims of your brother which he urges without remission are still stronger They have been
countenanced admitted and encouraged I cannot recede What can I do but hope ardently hope Frank Henley is in an error and that he himself may make the discovery Yet how long and fruitless have these hopes been My dilemma is extreme for if I have been mistaken act how I will extreme must be the wrong I commit
Little did I imagine a moment so full of bitter doubt and distrust as this could come Were I but satisfied of the rectitude of my decision there are no sensations which I could not stifle no affections which I could not calm nor any wandering wishes but what I could reprove to silence But the dread of a flagrant an odious injustice distracts me and I know not where or of whom to
seek consolation Even my Louisa the warm friend of my heart cannot determine in my favour
Your brother has been with me He found me in tears enquired the cause and truth demanded a full and unequivocal confidence I shewed him what I had been writing You may well imagine Louisa he did not read it with total apathy But he suppressed his own feelings with endeavours to give relief to mine He argued to shew me my motives had been highly virtuous He would not say—His candour delighted me Louisa—He would not say there was no ground for my fears he was interested and might be partial He believed
indeed I had acted in strict conformity to the purest principles but had I even been mistaken the origin of my mistake was so dignified as totally to deprive the act of all possible turpitude
He was soothing and kind gave high encomiums to Frank took blame to himself for the error of his former opinions and reminding me of the motives which first induced me to think of him tenderly asked if I had any new or recent cause to be weary of my task
What could I answer What but that I was delighted with the rapid change perceptible in his sentiments and with the ardour with which his enquiries were continued
Frank Henley is by this time at Wenbourne Hill You will see him
Plead our cause Louisa urge him to remain among us Condescend even to enforce my selfish motive that he would not leave me under the torturing supposition of having banished him from a country which he was born to enlighten reform and bless
There is indeed another argument but I know not whether it ought to be mentioned Sir Arthur owns he is in the power of the avaricious Abimelech and I believe is in dread of foreclosures that might even eject him from Wenbourne Hill This man must have been an early and a deep adventurer in the trade of usury or he never could have gained wealth so great as he appears to have amassed
Past incidents with all of which you
are acquainted have given Sir Arthur a high opinion of Frank and this added to his own fears I am persuaded would lead him to consider a union between us at present with complacency were not such an inclination opposed by other circumstances The open encouragement that he himself has given to Clifton is one and it is strengthened by all the interest of the other branches of our family Your brother is highly in favour with Lord Fitz Allen My aunt Wenbourne equally approves the match and Clifton and my brother Edward are become intimate As to me reason consistency and my own forward conduct oblige me to be the enemy of Frank
Louisa I scarcely know what I write
Think not I have abandoned myself to the capricious gusts of passion or that my love of uncontaminated and rigorous virtue is lessened No it is indecision it is an abhorrence of injustice which shake and disquiet me
Write to me let me know your sentiments and particularly how far your application to Frank when you have made it is successful I am anxious to receive your letter for I know it will inspire fortitude of which I am in great great need
A W ST IVES
LOUISA CLIFTON TO ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES
RoseBank
OH my dearest and ever dear Anna what shall I say how shall I assuage doubts that take birth in principles so pure and a heart so void of guile I know not I have before acknowledged the mist is too thick for me to penetrate
The worthy the nobleminded Frank has been with us and I could devise no better way than to shew him your letter He was greatly moved and collecting all the firmness of his soul resolutely declared that since your peace was so deeply concerned be his own sensations what they might he would conquer them and remain in England The heartfelt applause he bestowed upon you was almost insupportably affecting He has indeed a deep sense of your uncommon worth and he alone I fear on earth is capable of doing it justice
But things have taken a different turn and what can the best of us do when involved as we continually are in doubt and difficulty but act as you do
with impartial self denial and the most rigid regard to truth and virtue
Alas dear Anna I too am in need of support and in search of fortitude—My mother—She will not be long among us—A heart more benevolent a mind more exalted— She calls—I hear her feeble voice—Not even my Anna must rob her of my company for those few remaining moments she has yet to come I am her last consolation
L CLIFTON
I expect you will this post receive a letter from Frank that will speak more effectually to your heart than I have either the time to do or the power
FRANK HENLEY TO ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES
WenbourneHill
MADAM
YOUR generous and zealous friend has thought proper to shew me your letter I will not attempt to describe the sensations it excited but as your peace of mind is precious to me and more precious still perhaps to the interests of
society and since my departure would occasion alarms and doubts so strong I am determined to stay My motives for going I thought too forcible and well founded to be overpowered nor could they perhaps have been vanquished by any less cause If one of us must suffer the warfare of contending sentiments and principles let it be me It was to fly from and if possible forget or subdue them that I projected such a voyage Our duties to society must not cede to any effeminate compassion for ourselves We are both enough acquainted with those duties to render us more than commonly culpable should we be guilty of neglect
To describe my weakness and the contention to which my passions have
been lately subject might tend to awaken emotions in you which ought to be estranged from your mind Our lot is cast let us seek support in those principles which first taught us reciprocal esteem nor palliate our desertion of them by that self pity which would become our reproach We have dared to make high claims form high enterprises and assert high truths let us shew ourselves worthy of the pretensions we have made and not by our proper weakness betray the cause of which we are enamoured
You will not—no you are too just—I am sure madam you will not attribute resolutions like these which are more infinitely more painful to the heart
than they ought to be to any light or unworthy change of sentiment Superior gifts superior attainments and superior virtues inevitably beget admiration in those who discover them for their possessors Admiration is the parent of esteem and the continuance and increase of this esteem is affection or in its purest and best sense love To say I would not esteem and would not love virtue and especially high and unusual virtue would be both folly and guilt
But you have taught me how pure and selfdenying this love may be Oh that the man of your choice may but become all you hope and all of which his uncommon powers are capable Oh
that I may but see you as happy as you deserve to be and I think I shall then not bestow much pity upon myself
I have forborne madam to intrude the petty disquiets of another kind from which as you will readily imagine I cannot have been wholly free Need I say how much I disapprove my fathers views and the mode by which he would have them accomplished There is no effort I will not make to conquer and remove this obstacle It wounds me to the heart that you the daughter of his benefactor should for a moment be dependant on his avarice The injury and iniquity are equally revolting and there are moments when my prejudices falsely accuse me of being a participator in the guilt
I have had two conversations with my father they both were animated but though he was very determined his resolution begins to fail and as I have justice on my side and am still more determined than he I have no doubt that in a few days every thing which Sir Arthur has required of him he will be willing to undertake
However as in a certain sense all is doubtful which is yet to be done perhaps strict prudence would demand that Sir Arthur should not be led to hope till success is ascertained of which I will not delay a moment to send you information
I am c F HENLEY
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
THE moment Fairfax the trying the great the glorious moment approaches Every possible contributing cause calls aloud for expedition and reprobates delay This gardening fellow is gone For his absence I thank him but not for the resolute spirit with which
he intends to attack his father and make him yield He has a tongue that would silence the congregated clamours of the Sorbonne and dumbfound Belial himself in the hall of Pandemonium Tis certain he has a tough morsel to encounter and yet I fear he will succeed
This would destroy all—Marry her—No—By heaven no If the hopes of Abimelech be not stubborn enough to persevere they must and shall be strengthened His refusal is indispensably necessary in every view unless the view of marriage which I once more tell you Fairfax I now detest I should have no plea with her were that of delay removed
What is still worse this delay may be removed by another and more painful
cause My mother it appears declines rapidly her death is even feared and should it happen I cannot pretend to insist on the obstacles which her maternal cares and provisionary fears have raised
I can think of no certain expedient for this Abimelech but that of an anonymous letter Neither the writing nor the style must appear to be mine nor must the hand that writes it understand its purport Tyros and ignorant as my opponents are in the tricks and intrigues of amorous stratagem still they have too much understanding not to be redoubtable
Those old necromancers Subtlety and Falsehood must forge the magic armour and the enchanted shield under which I
fight Like wizards of yore they must render me invisible and the fair form of the foolish Clifton they have imagined must only be seen
Honest Ab y or I mistake him is too worthy a fellow to desert so good a cause And this cloudcapt lady whose proud turrets I have sworn to level with the dust will not descend to plead the approaching death of my mother when I shall urge the injustice of delay—Ay Fairfax the injustice I mean to command to dare to overawe that is the only oratory which can put her to the rout She loves to be astonished and astonished she shall be If I do not shrink from myself her fall is infallible
My heart exults in the coming joy Never more will the milky pulp of compassion
rise to mar the luxurious meal She has been writing to the fellow Fairfax ay and has shewn me her letter For let her but imagine that truth or virtue or principle or any other abortive being of her own creation requires her to follow the whims of her disjointed fancy and what frantic folly is there of which she is incapable
Tis maddening to recollect but she doats on the fellow absolutely doats I am the tormenting demon that has appeared to interrupt her happiness she the devoted victim sacrificed to shield me from harm The thought of separation from him is distracting and every power must be conjured up to avert the horrid woe
Never before did my feelings support
such various and continual attacks never did I endure infidelity so open or insult so unblushing But patience the day of vengeance is at hand or rather is here This moment will I fly and take it Expect to hear
of battles sieges disastrous chances and of moving accidents but not of hair breadth scapes
—Escape she cannot I go She falls
C CLIFTON
FRANK HENLEY TO ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES
WenbourneHill
IT is now a week since I wrote to you madam at which time I took some pleasure in acquainting you with my hopes of success These hopes continued to increase and my father had almost promised to agree to the just proposals I made when two days ago he
suddenly and pertinaciously changed his opinion
I am sorry to add that he now appears to be much more determined than ever and that I am wholly astonished at and wholly unable to account for this alteration of sentiment I delayed sending you the intelligence by yesterdays post hoping it was only a temporary return of former projects which I could again reason away But I find him so positive so passionate and so inaccessible to reason that I am persuaded some secret cause has arisen of which I am ignorant Yet do not be dejected dear madam nor imagine I will lightly give it up as a lost cause—No—My mind is too much affected and too earnestly bent
on its object not to accomplish it if possible
I received your letter but have no thanks that can equal the favour I hope the emotions to which it gave birth were worthy such a correspondent I can truly and I believe innocently say my heart sympathises in all your joys hopes and apprehensions and that my pleasure at the progress of Mr Clifton in the discovery of truth and the practice of virtue is but little less than your own
I am glad you thought proper to be cautious of giving Sir Arthur any unconfirmed expectations and I promise
you to exert every effort to effect a propitious change in the present temper and resolutions of my father
I am dear madam c F HENLEY
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
WHEN last I wrote my resolution was taken and I determined on immediate attack But I went in a seeming unlucky moment though I much mistake if it were not the very reverse
The supposed misfortune I had foreseen fell upon me The squire of
preachers had fairly overcome his fathers obstinacy and induced him to give ground Instead of having received the news of his determined persistency I found her with a letter in her hand informing her that he had begun to relent and that his full acquiescence was expected
To have commenced the battle at so inauspicious a moment would have been little worthy of a great captain My resolution was instantly formed
After acting as much ecstasy as I could call up I hastened home and wrote my projected letter to honest Aby I threw my hints together in Italian that they might not be understood by the agent whom I meant to employ This was my groom an English lad whom I met
with at Paris who spells well and writes a good hand I pretended I had crushed my finger and could not hold a pen and without letting him understand the intent of my writing or even that it was a letter I dictated to him as follows a transcript of which I send to you Fairfax first that you may sigh and see what the blessing of a ready invention is and next as an example which you may copy or at least from which you may take a hint if ever you should have occasion
SO you have been persuaded at last to give up your point my old friend And can you swallow this tale of a tub A fine cock and a bull story has been dinned in your
ears Dont believe a word ont I know the whole affair and though you dont know me be assured I mean you well and I tell you that if you will but hold out stoutly every thing will soon be settled to your hearts desire She is dying for love of him and he cant see it She will never have the man they mean for her I can assure you of that and what is more he will never have her What I tell you I know to be true No matter who I am If I knew nothing of the affair how could I write to you And if the advice I give be good what need you care whom it comes from Only dont let your son see this if you do it will spoil all You perceive how blind he is to his own
good and how positive too Keep your counsel but be resolute Look around you persist in your own plans and the hall the parks the gardens the meadows the lands you see are all your own I am sure you cannot misunderstand me But mark my words be close keep your thoughts to yourself You know the world You have made your own fortune dont mar it by your own folly Tell no tales I say nor if you are a wise man give the least hint that you have a friend in a corner
This I dictated to my amanuensis pretending to translate it out of the paper I held in my hand and which I took care to place before him so that he
should see it was really written in a foreign language I likewise once or twice counterfeited a laugh at what I was reading and ejaculated to myself—This is a curious scrap
When he had finished I gave him half a crown praised his handwriting which I told him I wanted to see for perhaps I might find him better employment than currying of horses and sent him about his business too much pleased and elated and his ideas led into too distant a train to harbour the least suspicion
Nor did my precautions end here I immediately ordered my horse and rode without any attendant full speed to Hounslow I there desired the landlord of an inn at which I am personally
known though not by name to send one of his own lads post to the market town next to WenbourneHill and there to hire a countryman without explaining who or what he himself was to deliver the letter into the hands of honest Aby I requested the landlord to choose an intelligent messenger and backed my request with a present bribe and a future promise
My plan was too well laid to miscarry and accordingly yesterday a mournful account arrived from the young orator that judgment is reversed and he in imminent danger of being cast in costs
And now Fairfax once more I go—Expedition resolution a torrent
of words a storm of passion and the pealing thunder that dies away in descending rains The word is Anna St Ives revenge and victory
C CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
ONCE more Fairfax here am I
Well And how—
Not so fast good sir All things in their turn The story shall be told just as it happened and your galloping curiosity must be pleased to wait
I knew my time the hour when she
would retire to her own apartment and the minute when I might find admission for she is very methodical as all your very wise people more or less are I had given Laura her lesson that is had told her that I had something very serious to say to her mistress that morning and desired her to take care to be out of the way that she might be sure not to interrupt us The sly jade looked with that arch significance which her own experience had taught her and left me with—Oh Mr Clifton
And here I could make a remark but that would be anticipating my story
You may think Fairfax that marshalled as my hopes and fears were in
battle array something of inward agitation would be apparent In reality not only some but much was visible It caught her attention and luckily caught I attempted to speak and stammered A false step as it would have been most fatal so was it more probable at the moment of onset than afterward when the heated imagination should have collected arranged and begun to pour forth its stores
The philosophy of the passions was the theme I first chose though at the very moment when my spirits were all fluttering with wild disorder But my faultering voice which had I wished I could not have commanded aided me for the tremulous state of my frame threw hers into most admirable confusion
What was it that disturbed me What had I to communicate She never saw me thus before It was quite alarming
Madam—Observe Fairfax I am now the speaker but I shall remind you of such trifles no more If you cannot distinguish the interlocutors you deserve not to be present at such a dialogue Madam I own my mind is oppressed by thoughts which however just in their purpose however worthy in their intent inspire all that hesitation that timidity that something like terror which I scarcely know how to overcome Yet what should I fear Am I not armed by principle and truth Why shun a declaration of thoughts that are founded in right or tremble like a
coward that doubted of his cause I am your scholar and have learned to subdue sensations of which the judgment disapproves From you likewise have I learned to avow tenets that are demonstrable and not to shrink from them because I may be in danger of being misconstrued or even suspected Pardon me I do you wrong Your mind is superior to suspicion It is a mean an odious vice and never could I esteem the heart in which it found place I forget myself and talk to you as I would to a being of an infinitely lower order
Mr Clifton—
Do not let your eye reprove me I have not said what is not and who better knows than you how much it
is beneath us to refrain from saying what is
Do not keep me in this suspense I am sure there is something very uncommon in your thoughts Speak
Thoughts will be sometimes our masters the best and wisest of us cannot always command them That I have daily repressed them have struggled against rooted prejudices and confirmed propensities and have ardently endeavoured to rise to that proud eminence toward which you have continually pointed you are my witness
I am
Protracted desires imagined pleasures and racking pains and oh how often have they all been felt no longer sway me They have been repulsed disdained
trodden under foot You have taught me how shameful it is to be the slave of passion Truth is now my object justice my impulse and virtue high virtue my guide
Oh Clifton Speak thus be thus ever
The moment it appeared I knew that delay was ominous
Nay Clifton—
Hear me madam—Yes ominous I see no end to it have every thing to fear from it and nothing to hope—There is a thought—Ay that verges to madness—I have a rival— But I will forget it—at least will try Who can deny that it is excruciating—But I am actuated at present by another and a nobler motive You know madam
what you found me and I hope you are not quite unconscious of what you have made me You have taught me principles to which I mean to adhere and truths I intend to assert have opened views to me of immense magnitude In your society I am secure But habits are inveterate and easily revived and were I torn from you I myself know not the degree of my own danger Yes madam fain indeed would I forget there is such a person as Frank Henley Yet how By what effort what artifice Say Teach me What though my heart reproaches me with its own foibles who can prevent possibilities mere possibilities in a case like this from being absolute torments My soul pants and
aches after certainty The moment I ask myself what doubt there can be of Anna St Ives I answer none none Yet the moment after forgetting this question alarms probabilities past scenes and intolerable suppositions swarm to assault me without relaxation or mercy
Clifton you said you had a nobler motive
I merit the reproach madam These effusions burst from me are unworthy of me and I disclaim them You have pardoned many of my strays and mistakes and I am sure will pardon this For the love of fame Fairfax do not suffer the numerous masterstrokes of this dialogue to escape you I cannot stay to point them out Yes madam I
have a nobler motive Yet enlarged as your mind is I know not how to prepare you calmly to listen to me without alarm and without prevention Strange as it may seem I dread to speak truth even to you
If truth it be speak and fear nothing Propose but any adequate and worthy purpose and there is no pain no danger no disgrace from which if I know myself I would shrink
No disgrace madam
Your words and looks both doubt me—Put me to the proof Propose I say an adequate and worthy purpose and let your test be such as nature shudders at then despise me and my principles if I recoil
The union of marriage demands reciprocal
unequivocal and unbounded confidence for how can we pretend to love those whom we cannot trust The man who is unworthy this unbounded confidence is most unworthy to be a husband and it were even better he should shew his bad qualities by basely and dishonestly deserting her who had committed herself body and soul to his honour than that such qualities should discover themselves after marriage There is no disgrace can equal the torment of such an alliance
I grant it
You have attained that noble courage which dares to question the most received doctrines and bring them to the test of truth Who better than you can appreciate the falsehood and the force
of the prejudices of opinion Yet are you sure madam that even you are superior to them all
Far otherwise Would I were I am much too ignorant for such high such enviable perfection
But is it not possible that some of the most common and if I dared I should say the most narrow the most selfevident of these prejudices may sway and terrify you from the plain path of equity Dare you look the worlds unjust contumelies stedfastly in the face Dare you answer for yourself that you will not shudder at the performance of what you cannot but acknowledge nay have acknowledged to be an act of duty
I confess your preparation is alarming and makes me half suspect myself
half desirous to retract all I have thought all I have asserted Yet I think I dare do whatever justice can require
You think—
Once more bring me to the proof I feel a conscious Again you make me a braggart a virtuous certainty
In opposition to the whole world its prepossessions reproofs revilings persecutions and contempt
The picture is terrifying but ought not to be and I answer yes in opposition to and in defiance of them all
Then—You are my wife
How
Be firm Start not from the truth You are my wife Ask yourself the meaning of the word Can set forms and ceremonies unite mind to mind
And if not they what else What but community of sentiments similarity of principles reciprocal sympathies and an equal ardour for and love of truth Can it be denied
It cannot
You are my wife and I have a right to the privileges of a husband
A right
An absolute an indefeasible right
You go too fast
They are your own principles they are principles founded on avowed and indisputable truths I claim justice from you
Clifton
Justice
This is wrong—Surely it is wrong—This cannot be
Instead of the chaste husband such as better times and spirits of higher dignity have known who comes with lips void of guile the rightful claimant of an innocent heart in which suspicion never harboured imagine me to be a traitorous wretch who poorly seeks to gratify a momentary a vile a brutal passion Imagine me I say such a creature if you can Once I should have feared it but you have taught my thoughts to soar above such vulgar terrors My appeal is not to your passions but your principles Inspired by that refulgent ardour which animates you with a noble enthusiasm you have yourself bid me put you to the proof You cannot will not dare not be unjust
And now Fairfax behold her in the
very state I wished Cowed silenced overawed Her ideas deranged her tongue motionless wanting a reply her eyes wandering in perplexity her cheeks growing pale her lips quivering her body trembling her bosom panting Behold I say the wild disorder of her look Then turn to me and read secure triumph concealed exultation and bursting transport on my brow While impetuous fierce and fearless desire is blazing in my heart and mounting to my face See me in the very act of fastening on her And see—
Curses—Everlasting curses pursue and catch my perfidious evil genius—See that old Incubus Mrs Clarke enter with a letter in her hand that had arrived express and was to be delivered
instantly—Our mutual perturbation did not escape the prying witch my countenance red hers pale—The word begone maddened to break loose from my impatient tongue My eyes however spoke plainly enough and the hag was unwillingly retiring when a faint—Stay Mrs Clarke—called her back
As I foreboded it was all over for this time She opened the letter What its contents were I know not and impossible as it is that they should relate to me I yet wish I did I am sure by her manner they were extraordinary I could not ask while that old beldam was present Had she been my grandmother on this occasion I should have abused her and the eye of the young lady very plainly told me she wished me away It
was prudent to make the best retreat possible and with the best grace I therefore bowed and took my leave very gravely telling her I hoped she would seriously consider what I had said and again emphatically pronounced the word justice
You have now Fairfax been a spectator of the scene and if its many niceties have escaped you if you have not been hurried away as I was by the tide of passion and amazed at the successful sophistries which flowed from my tongue sophistries that are indeed so like truth that I myself at a cooler moment should have hesitated to utter them if I say the deep art with which the whole was conducted and the high acting with which I personified the only possible Being that
could subjugate Anna St Ives do not excite your astonishment why then you really are a dull fellow But I know you too well Fairfax to do you such injustice as this supposes Victory had declared for me I read her thoughts They were labouring for an answer I own but she was too much confounded And would I have given her time to rally No I should then have merited defeat
The grand difficulty however is vanquished she will hear me the next time with less surprise and the emotions of passion genuine honest mundane passion must take their turn for not even she Fairfax can be wholly exempt from these emotions I have not the least fear that my eloquence should fail me and
absolute victory excepted I could not have wished for greater success
I cannot forget this letter It disturbs and pesters my imagination I supposed it to be from Edward who has been at Bath but my valet has just informed me he is returned Perhaps it is from my sister and if so by its coming express my mother is dead I really fear it bodes me harm—I am determined to rid myself of this painful suspense I will therefore step to Grosvenorstreet I may as well face the worst at once You shall hear more when I return
Oh Fairfax I could curse most copiously
in all heathenish and christian tongues She has shut herself up and refuses to see me This infernal fellow Frank Henley is returned too He arrived two hours after the express I suspect it came from him nay I suspect—Flames and furies—I must tell you
I have seen Laura though scarcely for two minutes She is afraid she is watched It is all uproar confusion and suspicion at Sir Arthurs But the great curse is my groom the lad that I told you copied my letter to Abimelech has been sent for and privately catechised by her and her paramour And what confirms this most tormenting of all conjectures is the absence of the fellow he has not been home since nor at the stables
though he was always remarkably punctual but has sent the key so that he has certainly absconded
Had I not been a stupid booby had I given Laura directions to keep out of the way of Anna but in the way of taking messages for her she might have received the express and all might have been well Such a blockheadly blunder well deserves castigation
Ill deny the letter Fairfax They have no proof and Ill swear through thick and thin rather than bring myself into this universal this damnatory disgrace I know indeed she will not believe me and I likewise know that now it must be open war between us For do not think that I will suffer myself to be thus shamefully beaten out of the field
No by Lucifer and his Tophet I will die a foaming maniac fettered in straw ere that shall happen If not by persuasion she shall be mine by chicanery or even by force I will perish Fairfax sooner than desist
Oh for an agent a coadjutor worthy of the cause He must and shall be found
The uncle and aunt must be courted the father I expect will side with her The brother too must be my partisan for it will be necessary I should maintain an intercourse and the shew of still wishing for wedlock
I am half frantic Fairfax To be baffled by such an impossible accident after having acted my part with such supreme excellence is insupportable But
the hag Vengeance shall not slip me No I have fangs to equal hers ay and will fasten her yet I have been injured insulted frustrated and fiends seize me if I relent
C CLIFTON
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
LOUISA—My dear my kind my affectionate Louisa—My friend—What shall I say How shall I begin I am going to rend your heart—
Keep this letter from the sight of Mrs Clifton if she have not already been told do not let her know such a letter
exists—Oh this brother—But he is not your brother—Error so rooted so malignant so destructive exceeds all credibility
He came to me yesterday morning as was his custom There was something in his look which could I but have read it was exceedingly descriptive of the workings of his heart It was painful to see him He endeavoured to smile and for a moment to talk triflingly but could not He was in a tremor his mouth parched his lips white
His next essay was to philosophise but in this attempt too he was entirely at fault
The passions are all sympathetic and none more so than this of trepidation I cannot recollect what the ideas were that passed hastily through my mind but I
know he excited much alarm doubt and I believe suspicion
But though he had found all this difficulty to begin having begun he recovered himself very surprisingly His colour returned his voice became firm his ideas clear his reasoning energetic and his manner commanding He seemed to mould my hopes and apprehensions as he pleased to inspire terror this moment and the excess of confidence the next
Louisa my heart bleeds to say it but his purposes were vile his hypocrisy odious and—I must forbear and speak of foul deeds in fair terms I know not how many prejudices rise up to warn me one that I am a woman or rather a girl another that I am writing to the mans
sister a third that she is my friend and so on with endless et ceteras No matter that truth is to this friend infinitely more precious than a brother I may be allowed to feel indignation but not to express my feeling
But the most distressing the most revolting part of all is that he harangued like the apostle of truth the name of which he vilely prophaned in favour of the besest most pitiful most contemptible of vices the mere vainglory of seduction He has not even so much as the gratification of sensual appetite to plead in his excuse I am wrong it was not vain glory Vanity itself contemptible as such a stimulus would have been was scarcely a secondary motive It was something worse it was revenge
My mind has been wholly occupied in retracing his past behaviour I can think on no other subject and every trait which recollection adds is a confirmation of this painful idea He does not wish to marry me and I almost doubt whether he ever did at least fully and unreservedly
He came to me Louisa and began with painting the torments of delay and the pangs of jealousy which he endeavoured to excuse and concluded with a bold appeal to my justice a daring overawing confounding appeal He called upon me at my peril and as I respected truth and virtue to deny his claim
And what was this claim—I was his wife—In every pure and virtuous
sense his wife and he demanded the privilege of a husband—Demanded Louisa—Demanded—And demanded it in such a tone with such rapid overbearing bold expressions and such an apparent consciousness of right that for a moment my mind was utterly confused
Not that it ceded no not an instant I knew there was an answer a just and irrefragable one but I could not immediately find it He perceived my disorder and you cannot imagine what a shameless and offensive form his features assumed I know not what he would not instantly have attempted had not while I was endeavouring to awake from my lethargy Mrs Clarke come in She brought me a letter—It was sent express
—The hand writing was Franks Agitated as I was suspicion influenced me and I retreated a few steps—I opened the letter and the first words I saw were—Beware of Mr Clifton—
It contained only half a dozen lines and I read on What follows were its contents—
Beware of Mr Clifton—Had I not good cause madam I would not be so abrupt an accuser but I am haunted tortured by the dread of possibilities and therefore send this away express—Beware of Mr Clifton—I will not be long after the letter and I will then explain why I have written what to you may appear so strange
F HENLEY
Think Louisa what must be the effect of such a letter coming at such a moment—I believe I was in no danger though if there be a man on the face of the earth more dangerous than any other it is surely Clifton But the watchful spirit of Frank seems placed like my guardian angel to protect me from all possible harm
My mind debated for a moment whether it were not wrong to distrust the power of truth and virtue and not to let Mr Clifton see I could demolish the audacious sophistry by which he had endeavoured to confound and overwhelm me But my ideas were deranged and I could not collect sufficient fortitude Oh how dangerous is this confusion of the judgment and how desirable that heavenly
presence of mind which is equal to these great these trying occasions I therefore thought it more prudent to suffer him to depart and suspect vilely of me than to encounter the rude contest which he would more audaciously recommence were I to send away Mrs Clarke which he might even misconstrue into a signal of approbation These fears prevailed and I desired her to stay and by my manner told him I wished his absence
Louisa how shall I describe my anguish of heart at seeing all those hopes of a mind so extraordinary for extraordinary it is even in guilt at once overthrown It was indeed iteration of anguish What Can guile so perfectly assume the garb of sincerity Can hypoprisy
wear so impenetrable a mask How shall we distinguish What guide have we How be certain that the next seeming virtuous man we meet is not a—Well well Louisa—I will remember—Brother My Louisa knows it is not from the person but from the vice that I turn away with disgust Would I willingly give her heart a pang Let her tell me if she can suspect it She has fortitude she has affection but it is an affection for virtue truth and justice She will endeavour to reform error the most obdurate So will I so will all that are worthy the high office But she will not wish me either to marry with or to countenance this error Marry—How does my soul shudder at the thought His reasoning was just
seduction would have been a petty injury or rather a blessing compared to this master evil He was most merciful when he meant me as he thought most destruction I have been guilty of a great error The reformation of man or woman by projects of marriage is a mistaken a pernicious attempt Instead of being an act of morality I am persuaded it is an act of vice Let us never cease our endeavours to reform the licentious and the depraved but let us not marry them
The letter had not been delivered more than two hours before Frank arrived
You may think Louisa how hard he had ridden but he refused to imagine himself fatigued He brought another letter which Abimelech had received but which for some hours he obstinately refused to give up and for this reason Frank fent off the express A letter not of Cliftons writing but of his invention and sending
Finding that Frank was likely to prevail on his father to raise the money for Sir Arthur and obviate all further impediments to our marriage Clifton fearful that it should take place wrote anonymously to Abimelech to inform him I was in love with Frank and to encourage him to persist But read
the letter yourself the following is a true copy of it
If such a letter be his I am sure Louisa you will not say I have thought or spoken too unkindly of him and that it is his we have indubitable proof though it was anonymous and not in his handwriting
You no doubt remember Louisa the short story of the English lad whom your brother hired at Paris It was written by him though innocently and without knowing what was intended This lad has an aunt who after having
laboured to old age is now lame infirm and in need of support The active Frank has been with her has aided her with money and consoled her with kindness The lad himself was desirous of assisting her and Frank willing to encourage industry in the young gave him some writings to copy at his leisure hours By this accident he knew the lads handwriting
I forgot to mention in its proper place the astonishment of Frank at the sudden change in his father and the firm resolution he took to discover the cause of this change The obstinacy of Abimelech was extreme but Frank was still more pertinacious more determined and so unwearied and incessant
in his attacks on his father that the old man at last could resist no longer and shewed him this letter
From what has preceded that is from his manner of acting you may well imagine what the alarms and sensations of Frank were He brought the letter up with him for he would not trust it out of his own custody and immediately went himself to Cliftons stables in search of the lad brought him to me and then first shewed him the letter which that no possible collusion might be alleged he had left in my keeping and then asked if it were not his handwriting The lad very frankly and unhesitatingly answered it was except the direction which this plotting Clifton
had procured to be written by some other person
Without telling the lad more than was necessary Frank advised him to quit his service for that there was something relating to that letter which would certainly occasion a quarrel and perhaps worse between him and his master and as it would be prudent for him to keep out of the way he sent him down to WenbourneHill where the lad is at present
And now what shall I say to my Louisa How shall I sooth the feelings of my friend Do they need soothing Does she consider all mankind as her
relations and brothers or does she indeed imagine that one whose principles are so opposite to her own is the only brother she possesses Will she grieve more for him than she would for any other who should be equally unfortunate in error Or does she doubt with me whether grief can in any possible case be a virtue And if so is there any virtue of which she is incapable What is relation what is brother what is self if relation brother or self be at war with truth And does not truth command us to consider beings exactly as they are without any respect to this relationship this self
But I know my Louisa she will never be impatient under trial however
severe nor foolishly repine for the past though she will strenuously labour for the future
All good all peace all happiness all wisdom be with her
A W ST IVES
LOUISA CLIFTON TO HER BROTHER COKE CLIFTON
RoseBank
SIR
ON Friday morning I received the original letter from Anna St Ives of which the inclosed is a copy and on the following day about a quarter of an hour before midnight my mother expired I mention these circumstances
together because they were noticed by those who were necessarily acquainted with them as having a relation to each other whether real or imaginary much or little I do not pretend to determine but I will relate the facts and leave them to your own reflection and I will forbear all colouring that I may not be suspected of injustice
My mother as you know has been daily declining and was indeed in a very feeble state She seemed rather more cheerful that morning than she had been lately and at her particular request I went to visit the wife of farmer Beardmore who is a worthy but poor woman and who being at present dejected in consequence of poverty and ill health my mother thought she might
be more benefited by the kindness of the little relief we could afford her if delivered by me than if sent by a less soothing and sympathetic hand I should hope sir it would be some consolation to you to learn that my mothers active virtue never forsook her while memory and mind remained But of this you are the best judge
While I was gone the postman brought the letter of my friend and as her letters were always read to my mother and as I likewise have made it a rule and a duty not to have any secrets to conceal from her or indeed from any body she had no scruple to have the letter opened because she expected to find consolation and hope for till the arrival of this the letters of Anna St
Ives have lately been all zealous in your praise
I will leave you sir to imagine the effect which a letter beginning as this did must have on a mind and body worn to such a tremulous state of sensibility Coming as it did first into my mothers hands the very caution which the benevolent heart of Anna dictated produced the effect she most dreaded My mother had still however a sufficient portion of her former energy to hear it to the end
In about an hour after this happened I returned and found her in extreme agitation of mind I neglected no arguments no efforts to calm her sensations and I succeeded so far that after a time she seemed to be tolerably resigned
She could not indeed forget it and the subject was revived by her several times during the day
My chief endeavour was to lead her thoughts into that train which by looking forward to the progress of virtue is most consoling to the mind of virtue
She seemed at last fatigued and about eleven oclock at night fell into a doze About a quarter before twelve I perceived her countenance distorted I was alarmed I spoke to her and received no answer I endeavoured to excite attention or motion but in vain A paralytic stroke had deprived her of sensation In this state she remained fourandtwenty hours and about midnight departed
I have thought it strictly incumbent on me to relate these circumstances But I should consider myself as very highly culpable did I seek to aggravate or to state that as certainty which can never be any thing more than conjecture My mother was so enfeebled that we began to be in daily apprehension of her death I must not however conceal that the thought of your union with Anna St Ives had been one of her principal pleasures ever since she had supposed it probable and that she had spoken of it incessantly and always with that high degree of maternal affection and cheering hope which you cannot but know was congenial to her nature
The disappointment itself was great
but the turpitude that attended it much greater This I did not endeavour to palliate How could I I have told you I had no resource for consolation either for myself or her but in turning like Anna St Ives from the individual to the whole
I would endeavour to say something that should shew you the folly of such conduct for the folly of it is even more excessive than the vice but not to mention the state of my own mind at this moment I despair of producing any effect since Anna St Ives herself aided by so many concurring motives has failed in the generous and disinterested attempt
I imagine you will be down at the funeral Perhaps it is proper I cannot
say for indeed I do not very well understand many of what are called the proprieties of custom I own I am weak enough to feel some pain at meeting you under the present circumstances But since it is necessary I should act and aid you in various family departments if you should come down I will not yield to these emotions but considering you as an erring brother will endeavour to perform what duty requires
L CLIFTON
P S
Previous to this I wrote three different letters but they were all as I fear too expressive of those strong sensations which I have found it very
difficult to calm I destroyed them not because they were wrong but lest they should produce a wrong effect
COKE CLIFTON TO HIS SISTER LOUISA CLIFTON
London Dover Street
MADAM
I HAVE received your very lenient equitable calumniating insulting letter and I would have you put it down in your memorandumbook that I will carefully remember the obligation It perfectly accords with your sublime
ideas of justice to decide before you have heard both parties and it is equally consistent with your notions of sisterly affection that you should pass sentence on a brother What is a brother or all he may have to say to you who more infallible than the holy father himself have squared a set of rules of your own by which you judge as you best know how
Your insinuations concerning the death of my mother are equally charitable and I have already learnt them by rote Yes madam assure yourself they will not be forgotten Any suspense of judgment would have ill become a lady so clear sighted However possible it may be that Anna St Ives may herself have been imposed upon and I both
ignorant and innocent of this forged letter yet for you to have entertained any doubts in my favour would have partaken too much of the fogs of earth for so inspired and celestial a lady
But I must tell you madam since you can so readily forego equity in a brothers behalf I can and will be as ready to forget and cast off the sister I never yet was or will be injured with impunity I would have you note down that
I mean to be at RoseBank tomorrow or the day after to attend the funeral and take such order as my affairs may require and though I have as little affection for your company as you have for mine I imagine it will be quite necessary for you to be there not only
that you should be present to execute all orders but likewise to listen to a few hints which I shall probably think proper to communicate
In the mean time madam be industrious to propagate the report if you think fit that I have caused anonymous letters to be written to Sir Arthurs steward have endeavoured to betray Anna St Ives and have been the death of my mother Spread the agreeable intelligence I say as quickly and as widely as you can and when you meet me you shall receive a brothers thanks
C CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London DoverStreet
BEFORE you proceed with my letter Fairfax read the inclosed paper —Read—The handwriting is
hers—It is addressed to me Was repeated to me Is transcribed for me—Transcribed by herself—Read And if it be possible believe in your own existence Believe if you can that all you see all you hear the images that swim before your eyes and the world itself are real and no delusion—For my part I begin to doubt—Read—Oh that I were invisible and standing by your side
Well—Have you ended—And do you still continue to breathe—Are you not a statue—Would not the whole universe denounce me liar if knowing me I were to tell it that words like these were not only spoken to me but are
written lest I should forget the maddening injuries they contain—What Make me her confessor—Me—No secret sin of thought word or deed concealed—All remembered all recited all avowed—Sins committed with the hated Henley—Sins against love against Clifton—Does she imagine I can look on a paper like this and while my eye shoots along the daring the insulting line not feel all the fires that now devour me—Surely she is frantic
These things Fairfax are above my comprehension My amazement must be eternal for I never shall be able to understand them—What Tell me Clifton of her amorous debates with such a fellow Appoint him her headusher
over me Announce him my rival Meet my eye unabashed and affirm him to be my superior Inform me of the deep hold he has taken of her heart Own she kissed him
Once again it is incredible Nay most and still more incredible for strange to say and yet more strange for her to do even this received such a varnish from her lips her eyes her beauties her irradiating zeal that reason everlastingly renounce me if I scarcely knew while she spoke whether it were not the history of some sylph some heavenly spirit she was reciting
Yes Fairfax There was a moment a short but dangerous moment at which so charmed was I by her eloquence so amazed by her daring sincerity so
moved by the white candour of a soul so seeming pure that possessed by I know not what booby devil of generosity I was on the point of throwing myself at her feet confessing the whole guilt of my intents and proclaiming myself her true and irrevocable convert
And this before the breath that uttered these injuries was cold
The siren—All the beauteous witcheries that ever yet were said or sung do not equal her—Circe Calypso Morgana fairy or goddess mortal or immortal knew not to mix the magic cup with so much art
Not that it was her arguments What are they It was her bright her beaming eyes her pouting beauteous lips
her palpitating ecstatic bosom her—I know not what except that even this was not all—No—There was something still more heavenly—An emanating deity—The celestial effulgence of a divine soul that flowed with fervour almost convulsive
Had you witnessed her elevated aspirations—Such swelling passions so mastered so controlled till then I never beheld Like the slow pause of the solemn deathbell the big tear at stated periods dropped but dropped unheeded Though she could not exclude them her stoic soul disdained to notice such intrusive guests—Her whole frame shook with the warfare between the feelings and the will—And well might it shake
I went prepared and lucky it was that I did My fixed determination was to be silent that I might profit by what I should hear That one dangerous moment excepted I was firm—Firm—Not to be moved though rocks would had they listened
Yes Fairfax I did my part Not that I am certain that to fall at her feet like a canting methodist own myself the most reprobate of wretches whine out repentance and implore forgiveness at the all sufficient fountain of her mercy would not be the very way to impose upon her best
I begin indeed to be angry at myself for not having yet resolved on one consistent plan Schemes so numerous present themselves and none without its
difficulties and objections that to determine is no easy task Circumstances in part must guide me I must have patience At present I can only prepare and keep in readiness such cumbrous engines as this phlegmatic foggy land of beef and pudding can afford I must supply the fire if I find it necessary to put the machines in motion
But having decreed her fall my spirits are now alert and there is not a being that surrounds me to whom imagination does not assign a possible part and that the part should be wellsuited to the person must be my care
My first exercise must be on myself Apathy or the affectation of apathy must be acquired—Inevitably must be—My passions must be masked I must pretend
to have conquered them In their naked and genuine form they are indecent immoral impure I know not what But catch a metaphysical quirk and let vanity and dogmatic assertion stand sponsors and baptize it a truth and then raptures extravagance and bigotry itself are deities Be then as loud as violent as intolerant as the most rancorous of zealots and it is all the sublime ardour of virtue
Yes I must learn to ape their contempt of all and every terrene object motive and respect
Inclose the strange paper I sent you and return it in your next I sent it in her own handwriting that your eyes might have full conviction I took a copy of it but I have since recollected I
may want the original The time may come when she may assail me with accusation and complaint I will then present that paper and flash guilt upon her
I am much deceived if I do not observe in this gardening and improving knight a want of former cordiality a decrease of ardour and perhaps a wish to retract—Why let him—To the daughters deadly sins let him add new it will but make invention more active and revenge more keen I will have an eye upon him I half hope my suspicions are true
The aunt Wenbourne too still continues to give laud unto Mr Henley—Damn Mr Henley—But she may be necessary and a she is entirely governed
by the gull Edward I must submit to bring myself into his favour The thing may easily be done
The lordly uncle FitzAllen is secure I frequently dine with him on what he calls his open day he being overwhelmed with business as blockheads usually are and I do not fail to insinuate the relationship in which if care be not taken he may hereafter chance to stand to a gardeners son His face flames at the supposition and his red nose burns more bright What will it do should I make him my tool when he finds to what good purpose he has been an abettor Be that his concern it neither is nor ever shall be mine
But none of these are the exact agent
I want nor have I found him yet They at best can only act as auxiliaries Laura indeed may be eminently useful but the plotting daring mischievous malignant yet subaltern imp incarnate that should run fly dive be visible and invisible and plunge through frost or fire to execute my behests is yet to be discovered
Were I in Italy disburse but a few sequins and battling legions would move at my bidding but here we have neither cicisbeos carnivals confessors bravoes nor sanctuaries No—We have too few priests and too much morality for our noble corps to flourish in full perfection
I know not that all this may be necessary but I suspect it will and I must
prepare for the worst for I will accomplish my purpose in despite of hell or honesty—Ay Fairfax will—Gentle means insinuation and hypocrisy shall be my first resource and if these fail me then I will order my engines to play
I have been once more reading my copy of this unaccountable paper and though every word is engraven in my memory it dropped from my hand with new astonishment Her history of her Mr Henley the yearnings of her heart toward him and her unabashed justification of all she has said all she has thought and all she has done are not to be paralleled in the records of female extravagance
She comes however to the point at last—Calculation is in favour of celibacy—For once lady you are in the right—We may appear to agree on cases more dubious but on that it will be miraculous if we ever hereafter differ
I cannot but again applaud myself for keeping my preconcerted resolution of silence and reserve so firmly I rejoice in my fortitude and my foresight for her efforts were so strenuous and her emotions so catching that had I been less prepared all had been lost
C CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
YES yes Fairfax She takes the sure and resolute road to ruin and travels it with unwearied ardour—What think you she has done now—An earthquake would have been more within my calculation—She labours hard after the marvellous—She has been angling
again in the muddy pool of paradox and has hooked up a new dogma—And what is it—Why nothing less than an asseveration that the promise she made me is not binding—Promises are nonentities they mean nothing stand for nothing and nothing can claim
So be it—It is a maxim divine apostate that will at least serve my turn as effectually as yours To own the truth I never thought promises made to capricious ladies stood for much nor were my scruples at present likely to have been increased If she a woman be simple enough to have faith in the word of man tis her fault Let her look to it
This is not all the doctrine is not of her own invention Mr Henley the
eternal Mr Henley again appears upon the scene from which he is scarcely ever a moment absent—Were it possible I could relent she is determined I shall not But they are both down in my tablets in large and indelible characters on the black list and there for a time at least they shall remain
My plan Fairfax is formed and I believe completely When I was first acquainted with her as you know my meaning was honest and my heart sincere I was a fool at least for a fortnight for that was the shortest period before I began at all to waver I was indeed deeply smitten Nor is desire cooled delay opposition and neglect have only changed its purpose She soon indeed taught me to treat her in
some manner like the rest of her sex and to begin to plot Tis well for me that I have a fertile brain and it had been well for her could she have been contented with the conquest she had made and have treated me with generosity equal to my deserts But a hypocrite she has made me and a hypocrite she shall find me ay and a deep one
She has herself given me my clue she has laid open her whole heart She has the fatuity to mimic the perfect heroine Tell her but it is a duty and with the Bramin wives she would lie down calmly and resolutely on the burning pile
Well then I will tell her of a duty of which she little dreams Yes she shall grant every thing I wish as an act of
duty I will convince her it is one I The pretty immaculate lamb must submit in this point to become my pupil and it shall go hard or I will prove as subtle a logician as herself
What say you Fairfax Is not the project an excellent one Is it not worthy of the sapient Doctor Clifton Shall I lose reputation think you by carrying it into effect
I am already become a new man My whole system is changed She begins to praise me most unmercifully and while my very heart is tickled with my success the lengthened visage of inspired quaker when the spirit moved was never more demure I am too pleased too proud of my own talents not to persist
Already I am a convert to one of her truths Do laugh Fairfax I have acknowledged that you and your footman are equal Is it not ridiculous However I am convinced Ay and convinced I will remain till time shall be She shall teach me a truth a day—Yet no—I must not learn too fast it may be suspicious though I would be as speedy as I conveniently can in my progress
The zeal of disputation burns within her and as I tell you I am already one of her very good boys because the pursuit of my own project makes me now as willing to listen and hunt after deductions such as I want as she is to teach and to supply me with those deductions She starts at no proposition however extravagant if it do but appear
to result from any one of her favourite systems of which she has a good round number Rather than relinquish the least of them she would suppose the glorious sun a coalpit and his dazzling rays no better than volumes of black smoke polished and grown bright on their travels by attrition She professes it to be the purpose of her life to free herself from all prejudices But here she has the modesty to add the saving clause—If it be practicable
Could she Fairfax have a more convenient hypothesis Do you not perceive its fecundity And the task being so very difficult will it not be benevolent in me to lend her my assistance What think you Is it not possible to prove that marriage is a mere prejudice
She shall find me willing to learn many or perhaps all of her doctrines and in return I desire to teach her no more than one of mine Can any thing be more reasonable more generous Nay I will go further I will not teach it her she shall have all the honour of teaching it to me Can man do more
The most knotty and perplexed part of my plan was to find a contrivance to make the gardeners son an actor in the plot The thing is difficult but not impossible I have various stratagems and schemes in the choice of which I must be guided by circumstances That which pleases me most is to invite him to sit in state the umpire of our disquisitions
I think I can depend upon myself
otherwise there would be danger in the project But if I act my part perfectly if I have but the resolution to listen coolly to their quiddities sometimes to oppose sometimes to recede and always to own myself conquered on the points which suit me best I believe both the gentleman and the lady will be sufficiently simple to suppose that in all this there will be nothing apocryphal They will imagine the gilt statue to be pure gold I shall be numbered among their elect I shall rise from the alembic a saint of their own subliming Shall be assayed and stamped current at their mint
Yet I must be cautious I would put my hand in the fire ere undertake so apparently mad a scheme with any other
couple in Christendom Considering how very warm—Curses bite and tingle on my tongue at the recollection—Considering I say how very warm I know their inclinations toward each other to be nothing but the proofs I have had could prompt me to commence an enterprize so improbable But the uncommonness of it is a main part of its merit and I think I know the ground I have to travel so well that I do not much fear I should lose my road
I am aware that the enemy I have most to guard against is myself To pretend a belief in opinions I despise to sit with saturnine gravity and nod approbation when my sides are convulsed with laughter to ape admiration at what
reason contemns and spurns and to smooth my features into suavity while my heart is bursting with gall at the intercourse they continually hold of becks and smiles and approving kind epithets to do all this is almost too much for mortal man But I have already made several essays on myself and I find that the obstinate resolution which an insatiable thirst of ample retribution inspires is not to be shaken and renders me equal even to this task
I am well aware however what dangerous quicksands the passions are and that a good pilot is never sparing of soundings I will therefore not only keep a rigorous watch upon myself but take such measures as shall enable me to exclude or retain the grubmonger as I
shall think fit during our conversations
Thus you are likely soon to hear more of our metaphysics nay if you be but industrious enough to enable you to set up for yourself and become the apostle of Paris I know no place where if you have but a morsel of the marvellous to detail you will find hearers better disposed to gape and swallow
C CLIFTON
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOVISA CLIFTON
London GrosvenorStreet
AFORTNIGHT has almost elapsed since I last wrote to my Louisa till my heart begins to cry shame at the delay Could I plead no other excuse than the trifling occupations of a trifling world I must sign my own condemnation but
your brother has afforded me better employment Our frequent conversations on many of the best and most dignified of moral enquiries his acute remarks and objections and the difficult problems he has occasionally given me to solve have left me in no danger of being idle
Oh Louisa how exquisite is the pleasure I feel to see him thus determined thus incessant in his pursuit A change so fortunate and so sudden astonishes while it delights—May it continue—May it increase—May—Vain unworthy wish—It must—The mind having once seized on the clue of truth can neither quit its hold nor become stationary it is obliged to advance And when its powers are equal to those of
Coke Clifton ought we to wonder at its bold and rapid flights
Still the conquests he daily makes over his own feelings cannot but surprise His struggles are evident but they are effectual He even resolutely casts off the strong prejudices he had conceived against Frank Henley invites him to aid us in our researches and appeals to him to explain and decide
Let us if we wish to weed out error be sincere in our efforts and have no remorse for our prejudices
This is his own language Louisa Oh that I could fully communicate the pleasure this change of character gives me to my friend Yes the restraint which too frequent contradiction lays him under will soon wear off and how great will
then be the enthusiasm with which he will defend and promulgate truth
Nor is it less delightful to observe the satisfaction which this reform sometimes gives to Frank Henley At others indeed he owns he is disturbed by doubt but he owns it with feelings of regret and is eager to prove himself unjust
Yet respecting me his thoughts never vary—Alas Louisa I still am his by right His tongue is silent but his looks and manner are sufficiently audible I surely have been guilty of the error I so much dreaded my cause was strong but my arguments were feeble I have prolonged the warfare of the passions which I attempted to eradicate or rather have left on his mind a deep sense of injustice committed by me— The
thought is intolerable—Excruciating
But oh with what equanimity with what fortitude does he endure his imagined wrongs Pure most pure must that passion be which at once possesses the strength of his and his forbearance There are indeed but few Frank Henleys
Surely Louisa I may do him justice—Surely to esteem the virtuous cannot merit the imputation of guilt—Who can praise him as he deserves And can that which is right in others be wrong in me—Yet such are the mistakes to which we are subject I scarcely can speak or even think of him without suspecting myself of committing some culpable impropriety
Pardon Louisa these wanderings of
the mind They are marauders which uniform vigilance alone can repel They are ever in arms and I obliged to be ever alert But it is petty warfare and cannot shake the dominion of truth▪
My feelings have led me from the topic I intended for the chief subject of this letter
The course of our enquiries has several times forced us upon that great question
the progress of mind toward perfection and the different order of things which must inevitably be the result
Yesterday this theme again occurred Frank was present and his imagination warm with the sublimity of his subject drew a bold and splendid picture of the felicity of that state of society when personal property no longer shall
exist when the whole torrent of mind shall unite in enquiry after the beautiful and the true when it shall no longer be diverted by those insignificant pursuits to which the absurd follies that originate in our false wants give birth when individual selfishness shall be unknown and when all shall labour for the good of all
A state so distant from present manners and opinions and apparently so impossible naturally gave rise to objections and your brother put many shrewd and pertinent questions which would have silenced a mind less informed and less comprehensive than that of our instructor
At last a difficulty arose which to me wore a very serious form and as what was said left a strong impression on my memory I will relate that part of the conversation
Observe Louisa that Clifton and Frank were the chief speakers Your brother began
I confess sir you have removed many apparently unconquerable difficulties but I have a further objection which I think unanswerable
What is it
Neither man nor woman in such a state can have any thing peculiar the whole must be for the use and benefit of the whole
As generally as practice will admit and how very general that may be imperfect as its constitution was Sparta remained during five hundred years a proof
Then how will it be possible when society shall be the general possessor for any man to say—This is my servant
He cannot there will be no servants
Well but—This is my child
Neither can he do that they will be the children of the state
Indeed—And what say you to—This is my wife—Can appropriation more than for the minute the hour or the day exist Or among so disinterested a people can a man say even of the woman he loves—She is mine
We paused—I own Louisa I found myself at a loss but Frank soon gave a very satisfactory reply
You have started a question of infinite importance which perhaps I am not fully prepared to answer I doubt whether in that better state of human society to which I look forward with such
ardent aspiration the intercourse of the sexes will be altogether promiscuous and unrestrained or whether they will admit of something that may be denominated marriage The former may perhaps be the truth but it is at least certain that in the sense in which we understand marriage and the affirmation—This is my wife—neither the institution nor the claim can in such a state or indeed in justice exist Of all the regulations which were ever suggested to the mistaken tyranny of selfishness none perhaps to this day have surpassed the despotism of those which undertake to bind not only body to body but soul to soul to all futurity in despite of every possible change which our vices and our virtues might effect or however numerous
the secret corporal or mental imperfections might prove which a more intimate acquaintance should bring to light
Then you think that some stipulation or bargain between the sexes must take place in the most virtuous ages
In the most virtuous ages the word bargain like the word promise will be unintelligible—We cannot bargain to do what is wrong nor can we though there should be no bargain forbear to do what is right without being unjust
Whence it results that marriage as a civil institution must ever be an evil
Yes It ought not to be a civil institution It is the concern of the individuals who consent to this mutual association and they ought not to be prevented
from beginning suspending or terminating it as they please
Clifton addressed himself to me—What say you to this doctrine madam Does it not shock does it not terrify you
As far as I have considered it no It appears to be founded on incontrovertible principles and I ought not to be shocked that some of my prejudices are opposed or at being reminded that men have not yet attained the true means of correcting their own vices
Surely the consequences are alarming The man who only studied the gratification of his desires would have a new wife each new day and the unprotected fair would be abandoned to all the licentiousness of libertinism
Frank again replied—Then you think the security of women would increase with their imagined increase of danger and that an unprincipled man who even at present if he be known is avoided and despised would then find a more ready welcome because as you suppose he would have more opportunities to injure
I must own that the men fit to be trusted with so much power are in my opinion very few indeed
You are imagining a society as perverse and vitiated as the present I am supposing one wholly the contrary I know too well that there are men who because unjust laws and customs worthy of barbarians have condemned helpless women to infamy for the loss of
that which under better regulations and in ages of more wisdom has been and will again be guilt to keep I know sir I say that the present world is infested by men who make it the business and the glory of their lives to bring this infamy upon the very beings for whom they feign the deepest affection—If ever patience can forsake me it will be at the recollection of these demons in the human form who come tricked out in all the smiles of love the protestations of loyalty and the arts of hell unrelentingly and causelessly to prey upon confiding innocence Nothing but the malverse selfishness of man could give being or countenance to such a monster Whatever is good exquisite or precious we are individually taught to grasp at and
if possible to secure but we have each a latent sense that this principle has rendered us a society of detestable misers and therefore to rob each other seems almost like the sports of justice
For which reason sir were I a father I think I should shudder to hear you instructing my daughters in your doctrines
I perceive you wholly misconceive me and I very seriously request pray observe sir I very seriously request you to remember that I would not teach any mans daughters so mad a doctrine as to indulge in sensual appetites or foster a licentious imagination I am not the apostle of depravity While men shall be mad foolish and dishonest enough to be vain of bad principles women may
be allowed to seek such protection as bad laws can afford—It is an eternal truth that the wisdom of man is superior to the strength of lions but I would not therfore turn an infant into a lions den
I am glad to be undeceived I thought it was scarcely possible you should mean what your words seemed to imply—At present I understand you and I again confess my surprise to find so much consistency and so many powerful arguments on a question in favour of which I thought nothing rational could be advanced You have afforded me food for reflection and I thank you I shall not easily forget what has been said
Tell me my dear Louisa are you not delighted with this dialogue and with the candour the force of thinking and what is still better the virtuous fears of your brother His mind revolted at the mischief which it seemed to forebode he was happy at being undeceived And with respect to argument I doubt whether he forgot any one of the most apparently formidable objections to what is called the levelling system But he was pleased to learn that this is only giving a good cause a bad name Such a system is infinitely more opposite to levelling than the present since the very essence of it is that merit shall be the only claimant and shall be certain of preeminence
The satisfaction I feel my friend is
beyond expression To have my hopes revived and daily strengthened after fearing they must all be relinquished increases the pleasure It is great and would be unmixed but for—Well well—Let Clifton but proceed and Frank will no longer say—To the end of time— You know the rest Louisa—All good be with you
A W ST IVES
P S
I thought I had forgotten something When Frank had retired your brother with delightful candour praised the great perspicuity as well as strength with which he argued He added there was one circumstance in particular in his principles concerning marriage although they had at first appeared
very alarming which was highly satisfactory and this was the confidence they inspired
Nothing he said gave his nature so much offence as the suspicions with which at present our sex view the men About two years ago he had a partiality for a Neapolitan lady and thought himself in love with her but in this he was mistaken it was rather inclination than passion He knew not at that time what it was to love Neither this Neapolitan lady though beautiful and highly accomplished nor any other woman his feelings told him could inspire pure affection who was incapable of confiding in herself and wanting this selfconfidence of confiding in her lover Suspicion originates
in a consciousness of self defect Those who cannot trust themselves cannot be induced to trust others
Thus justly Louisa did he continue to reason Nor could I forbear to apply the doctrine to myself I have been too distrustful of him my conscience accused me and I am resolved to remedy the fault I have always held suspicion to be the vice of mean and feeble minds but it is less difficult to find rules by theory than to demonstrate them by practice
I am sorry my dear Louisa to hear that the infirmities of Mrs Clifton increase But these are evils for which we can at present find no remedy and to which we must therefore submit with patience and resignation
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
I WILL not suppose Fairfax you seek to compliment me when you say you enjoy the exuberant heat of soul the fire that pervades my epistles I am glad you do I shall not think the worse of your talents Many a line have I written in all the burst of feeling and
not a few in all the blaze of wit and have said to myself—Should he not understand me now—Why if he should not dulness everlasting be his portion—But you take the sure way to keep up my ardour While I perceive you continue to enjoy I shall continue to be communicative A sympathetic yawner I may be but I do not believe I am often the first to begin
I knew not half my own merits I act my part to admiration Tis true the combining circumstances are all favourable I must be a dunce indeed if i• such a school I should want chicanery Our disputations have been continual nor have I ever failed to turn them on the most convenient topics But none of them have equalled
the last managed as it was with dexterity by me and in the very spirit I wished by my opponents I speak in the plural for I took care to have them both present Several remarks which I had heard from him assured me he would second my plan which was no less than to prove—marriage a farce—Would you have believed Fairfax I should have had the temerity to step upon a rock so slippery and to have requested this Archimago of Adams journeymen Adam you know being the worlds headgardener to stay and lend me his support—Yet thus audacious was I and courage as it ought has been crowned with success
The thought was suggested by themselves and had you or I or any of us
vile marriage haters been declaiming against the saffron god and his eternal shackles I doubt whether the best of us could have said any thing half so much to the purpose—Is it not excellent—
Then had you heard me preach ay me myself against libertines and libertinism
By the by Don Cabbageplant had the insolence to say two or three devilish severe things dishonourable to the noble fraternity of us knights of the bedchamber which if I forget may woman never more have cause to remember me
However I brought him to own—I—Do laugh by my very great apprehensions of the effects of such a doctrine that though marriage be a bad
thing it is quite necessary at present for the defence of the weaker vessels and modest maidenhood Ay and I applauded him for his honest candour I was glad I had misunderstood him Thanked him for all his profound information In short made him exactly what I wished my tool And a hightempered tool he is by the aid of which I will shew myself a most notable workman—
Not but the fellows eye was upon me I could observe him prying endeavouring to search and probe me But I came too well prepared Instead of shrinking from the encounter my brow contracted increasing indignation and my voice grew louder as I stood forth the champion of chaste virginity and
fanctimonious wedlock—The scene in the very critical sense of the phrase was high comedy—
It was well Fairfax they went no farther than Paris had either of them only reached Turin I had been half undone And had they touched at Naples Rome Venice or half a dozen other fair and flourishing cities my character for a pretty behaved demure and virtuous gentleman had been irremediably ruined
Upon my soul I cannot put it out of my head—Had you heard me remonstrate what a horrid thing it would be to have marriage destroyed and us honest fellows turned loose among the virgins from whom we should catch and ravish each a new damsel every new day and
had you seen what a fine serious undertakers face I put upon the business your heart would have chuckled To the day of your death it would never have been forgotten
Perhaps you will wonder how I could draw such a doctrine from these spinners of hypothesis I will tell you I had heard them severally maintain—Try to guess what—Not in seven years though you were to do nothing else—You I suppose like me have heard that liberty security and property are the three main pillars of political happiness—Well then these professors maintain that individual property is a general evil—What is more they maintain it by such arguments as would puzzle college council or senate to refute But that I
am determined never to torment my brain about such quips and quillets may I turn Turk if they would not have made a convert of me and have persuaded me that an estate of ten thousand a year was a very intolerable thing
My intention was to keep my countenance but to laugh at them in my heart most incontinently However I soon found my side of the question was not so perfectly beyond all doubt nor theirs quite so ridiculous as I had imagined
Tis true I went predetermined to be convinced and to take all they should tell me for gospel I had a conclusion of my own to draw and if I could but lead to that I cared not how much I granted
I know not whether this predisposition in me was of any advantage to their argument though I think it was not for so ready was the solution to every difficulty I boldly ventured to state objections which I meant to have kept out of sight lest I should myself overturn a system that suited my purpose I perceived their eagerness saw there was no danger that they should stop at trifles even if I should happen to throw them a bone to pick and the readiness of each reply raised my curiosity I fearlessly drew out my heavy artillery which they with ease and safety as fearlessly dismounted With a breath my strong holds were all puffed down like so many houses of cards
By this however my main business
was done more effectually We came to it by fair deduction It was not abruptly introduced it was major minor and consequent—All individual property is an evil—Marriage makes woman individual property—Therefore marriage is an evil—Could there be better logic
As for his saving clause that marriage in these times of prejudice and vice I have the whole cant by rote Fairfax is a necessary evil leave me to do that away What Is she not a heroine And can I not convince her that to act according to a bad system when there is a better were to descend to the ways of the vulgar Can I not teach her how superior she is to the pretty misses who conform to such mistaken laws Shall she want the courage and the generosity
to set the first good example How often have I seen her eyes sparkle her bosom heave and her zeal break forth in virtuous resolutions to encounter any peril to obtain a worthy purpose And can there be a more worthy
Curse upon these qualms of conscience Never before did I feel any thing so teazing so tormenting And knowing what I know remembering what I never can forget the slights injuries and insults I have received how I came to feel them now is to me wholly inconceivable She is acting it is true with what she calls the best and purest of intentions toward me she believes them to be such she sometimes almost obliges me to believe them such myself She tortures me by half constraining me to
revere the virtues in favour of which she harangues so divinely But shall I like a poor uxorious lackadaisy driveller sit down satisfied with a divided heart—I—Has she not with her own lips under her own hand avowed and signed her contumelious guilt her audacious preference of a rival—A mean a base a vulgar rival—And after this shall my projects suffer impediment from cheesecurd compassion—Shall the querulous voice of conscience arrest my avenging arm—No Fairfax—It cannot be Though my heart in its anger could not accuse her of a single crime beside that alone that damning preference would be allsufficient—The furies have no stings that equal this recollection
I have been throwing up my sashes striding across my room and construing ten lines of Seneca and my pulse again begins to beat more temperately
Let us argue the point with this pert unruly marplot conscience of mine
It was not at first without considerable reluctance and even pain that I began to plot I almost abhorred reducing her to the level of the sex not one of whom was ever yet her equal But she used me ill Fairfax Yes she used me ill and you well know that want of resentment is want of courage None but pitiful contemptible nosouled fellows
forget insults till ample vengeance have been taken And shall conscience insolently pretend to contradict the decree
Beside I could not but remember our old maxims the Cyprian battles our jovial corps had fought and the myrtle wreaths each wight had won Should I the leader the captain of the band be the first to fly my colours Was it not our favourite axiom that he who could declare upon his honour he had found a generous woman who never had attempted once to deceive trifle with or play him trick should still be acknowledged a companion of our order even though he were to marry but that all coquetry all tergiversation all wrongs however slight were unpardonable
and only one way to be redressed What answer can conscience give to that
Your letters too are another stimulalative You detail the full true and particular account of your amorous malefactions and vaunt of petty obstacles petty arts and petty triumphs over Signoras and Madames who advance challenge you to the field and give battle purposely to be overcome Their whole resistance is but to make you feel how great an Alexander you are and that having vanquished them you are invincible As you will certainly never meet with an Anna St Ives tis possible you may die in that opinion But I tell you Fairfax if you compare these practised Amazons to my heroine you are
in a most heterodox and damnable error of which if you do not timely repent your soul will never find admission into the lovers Elysium
Bear witness however to my honesty of women I allow her to be the most excellent but still a woman and not as I foolishly for a while supposed an absolute goddess No no Madam can curvet and play her pranks though of totally a different kind and being almost mortal at present mere mortal must become in despite of conscience and its green sickness physiognomy
At first I knew her not and unwilling to encounter logic in a gauze cap I ceased to oppose her arguments and thought to conciliate her by resolving to be of her creed What could be more
generous But no forsooth The veil was too thin To pretend conviction when it was not felt and to be satisfied with arguments before I had heard them were all insufficient for her The prize could be gained only by him who could answer the enigmas of the Sphinx I must enter the lists of cavil and run a tilt at wrangling ere the lady would bestow the meed of conquest Can conscience pretend to palliate conduct like this
I then turned my thoughts to a new project and endeavoured to overpower her by passion by excess of ardour by tenderness and importunity They had a temporary effect but I found them equally inefficacious Nor was the art by which I had oftenest been successful
forgotten though I confess that with her from the beginning it afforded me but little hope I tried to familiarize her to freedoms I began with her hands but she soon taught me that even her hands were sacred they were not to be treated with familiarity nor to be kissed and pressed like other hands Let conscience if it can tell me why
In fine while to this insolent pedagogue she has been all honeysuckle sweet marjoram and hearts ease to me she has been rue wormwood and hellebore him praising me reproving confiding in him suspecting me and as the very summit and crown of injury proclaiming him the possessor the master of her admiration or in plain English of her heart
And now if after this impartial this cool this stoic examination Mr Conscience should ever again be impertinent enough to open his lips I am determined without the least ceremony to kick him out of doors
When this famous conference of which I told you some half an hour ago was ended and our president our monarch of morals and mulberries had quitted his chair and withdrawn I played an aftergame of no small moment After pronouncing a panegyric on the gentleman as a legislator fit for truth and me I read the lady a modest lecture on confidence informed her of almost the exact quantity which I expected she would repose in me and declaimed with eloquence and effect against those suspicious
beauties who always regard us honest fellows as so many naughty goblins who like the Ethiopian monster voraciously devour every VirginAndromeda they meet But as I tell you I did it modestly I kept on my guard watched the moment to press forward or to retreat and wielded my weapons with dexterity and fuccess
Poor girl Is it not a pity that the very shield in which she confides her perfect honesty and sincerity should be destined to fall upon and overwhelm her—Thus says counsellor Sentiment and counsellor Sentiment is a great orator—But what say I Why I say so have the Fates decreed and therefore let the Fates look to it tis no concern of mine I am but their willing instrument
These however are but the preliminaries the preparations for the combat Ere long I shall be armed at all points and what is better by her own fair hands Nor do I know how soon I may begin the attack I have been casting about to send this superintendant of the cardinal virtues this captain of casuists and caterpillars out of the way and I think I have hit upon a tolerably bold and ingenious stratagem I say bold because I perceive it is not without danger but I doubt I cannot devise a better Without naming or appearing to mean myself I have fuggested to him by inventing a tale of two friends of mine what a noble and disinterested thing it would be for him to go down into the country and prevail on his father
to remove all obstacles to our marriage—
How Say you Is marriage your plan And if not is not that the way to ruin all
There is the danger I talked of but I do not think it great The scoundrel gardener I mean the father who is heartily despised by every body is desirous that his son should marry Anna I know not whether I ever before mentioned this sublime effort of impudence The cunning rascal has so long been the keeper of Sir Arthurs purse that it is supposed two thirds of the contents have glided into his own pocket This is the reason of the delay on Sir Arthurs part which at present I do not wish to shorten That this son of a grub catcher a Demosthenes
though he be should prevailon such a father if he were to go down as I hope he will is but little probable However should the least prognostic of such a miracle appear I have my remedy prepared I will generously have a letter written to the senior overseer of the gravel walks which if the character I have heard of him be not wholly false shall revive all his hopes and put an end to compliance
In Italy where amorous plotting is the national profession I was not easily circumvented and here where another gunpowder treason would as soon be suspected as such gins and snares at least by these very honest and sublime simpletons I laugh at the supposition of being unearthed
One word more I think I observe in this knight of Gotham this Sir Arthur a more cordial kind of yearning toward our young prince of Babel land than formerly a sort of desire to be more intimate with him of which by the by the youth is not very prompt to admit and an effort to treat him with more respect himself by way as it were of setting a good example to others If my conjectures are right the threats of the old muckworm father have shaken the crazy nerves of the baronet and I half suspect there is something more of meaning at the bottom of this Were it so were he to attempt to discard me it would indeed add another spur to the fury of revenge An affront so deep given by
this poor being this essence of insignificance would make revenge itself hot unsatiable revenge grow more hot madden more and thirst even after blood—Patience foams at the supposition
Thank heaven I hear the noisy postman with his warning bell which obliges me in good time to conclude and cool these fermenting juices of mine
C CLIFTON
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London Grosvenor Street
MY mind Oliver is harassed by a variety of doubts I believe I shall soon be down at Wenbourne Hill and of course shall then not fail to meet thee and visit thy most worthy father
The reason of my journey originates in the doubts I mentioned I am angry
with myself for feeling alarms at one moment which appear impossibilities the next If my fears have any foundation this Clifton is the deepest the most hardened fiendlike hypocrite imagination can paint—But it cannot be—Surely it cannot—I am guilty heinously guilty for enduring such a thought—So much folly and vice combined with understanding and I may say genius so uncommon is a supposition too extravagant too injurious
And yet it is strange Oliver—A conduct so suddenly altered so totally opposite to old and inveterate habits is scarcely reconcileable to the human character But if dissimulation can be productive of this is truth less powerful No—Truth is omnipotent Yet who
ever saw it hasty in its progress My only hope in this case is that the fuperiority of his mind has rendered him an exception to general rules
But what could he propose by his hypocrisy—I cannot tell—His passions are violent and ungovernable and are or very lately have been in full vigour—Again and again tis strange
But what of this—Why these fears Can she be spotted tinged by the stain of unsanctified desire—Never—The pure chastity of her soul is superior to attaint—Yet—Who can say—Wilfully her mind can never err but who can affirm that even she may not be deceived and may not act erroneously from the most holy motives
Perhaps Oliver it is my own situation
my own desires but half subdued in which these doubts take birth If so they are highly culpable
Be it as it may there is a duty visibly chalked out for me by circumstances Her present situation is surely a state of danger To see them married would now give me delight It would indeed be the delight of despair of gloom almost approaching horror But of that I must not think My father is the cause of the present delay I fear I cannot remove this impediment but it becomes me to try
Though I had before conceived the design this conduct has even been suggested to me by Clifton and in a mode that proves he can be artful if he please
Yet does it not likewise prove him to be in earnest
We have lately had several conversations one in particular which even while it seemed to place him in an amiable sincere and generous light excited some of the very doubts and terrors of which I speak—If he be a hypocrite he guards himself with a tenfold mask—It cannot—No—It cannot be—
I mean to speak to Sir Arthur concerning my journey but not to inform him of its purport it would have the face of insult to tell him I was going to be his advocate with his servant Not to mention that he has lately treated me with increasing and indeed unusual kindness If I do make an effort however
it shall be a strenuous one though my hopes that it should be effectual are very few My decision is not yet final but in my next thou wilt probably learn the result Farewell
F HENLEY
P S
My brain is so busied by its fears that I forgot to caution thee against a mistake into which it is probable this letter may lead I mentioned in one of my last the project I had conceived of leaving England Do not imagine I have abandoned a design on which the more I reflect the more I am intent The great end of life is to benefit community My mind in its present situation is too deeply affected freely and without incumbrance to exert itself—This
is weakness—But not the less true Oliver We are at present so imbued in prejudice have drunken so deeply of the cup of error that after having received taints so numerous and ingrained to wish for perfect consistency in virtue I doubt were vain Here or at the antipodes alike I should remember her but I should not alike be so often tempted and deluded by false hopes the current of thought would not so often meet with impediments to arrest divide and turn it aside
I have studied to divine in what land or among what people whether savage or such as we call polished the energies of mind might be most productive of good But this is a discovery which I have yet to make The reasons are so numerous
on each side that I have formed a plan for a kind of double effort I think of sailing for America where I may aid the struggles of liberty may freely publish all which the efforts of reason can teach me and at the same time may form a society of savages who seem in consequence of their very ignorance to have a less quantity of error and therefore to be less liable to repel truth than those whose information is more multifarious A merchant with whom by accident I became acquainted and who is a man of no mean understanding approves and has engaged to promote my plan But of this if I come to Wenbourne Hill we will talk further Once more Oliver adieu
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Doverstreet
COME to my aid Fairfax encourage me feed my vanity let hungry ambition banquet and allow me to be a hero lest I relent for were I not or Lucifer or Coke Clifton tis certain I should not persevere By the host of heaven Fairfax but she is a divine
creature She steals upon the soul A heart of rock could not resist her Nor are they wiles nor womans lures nor blandishments of tricksey dimples nor captivating smiles with which she forms her adamantine fetters No tis the open soul of honesty true sincere and unrelentingly just to me to herself to all tis that enchanting kindness that heavenly suavity which never forsakes her that equanimity of smiling yet obstinate fortitude that hilarity of heart that knows not gloom because it knows not evil that inscrutable purity which rests secure that all like itself are natively immaculate that—Pshaw—I can find no words find you imagination therefore and think not I will labour at impossibility You have
read of ancient vestals of the virgins of Paradise and of demideities that tune their golden harps on high—Read again—And having travelled with prophets and apostles to the heaven of heavens descend and view her and invent me language to describe her if you can
Curse on this Frank Henley But for him my vengeance never would have been roused Never would the fatal sentence have passed my lips—Tis now irrevocable—Sure as the lofty walls of Troy were doomed by gods and destiny to smoke in ruins so surely must the highsouled Anna fall—Ill starred wench—I Fairfax like other conquerors cannot shut pity from my bosom While I cry havoc I could almost
weep could look reluctant down on devastation which myself had made and heave a sigh and curse my proper prowess—In love and war alike such Fairfax is towering ambition It must have victims its reckless altars ask a full and large supply and when perchance a snowy lamb spotless and pure bedecked for sacrifice in all the artless pomp of unsuspecting innocence is brought bright burns the flame the white clouds curl and mantle up to heaven and there ambition proudly sits and snuffs with glut of lusty delight the grateful odour
I know your tricks Fairfax you are one of the doubtful doctors you love to catch credulity upon your hook I hear fat laughter gurgling in your throat and
out bolts your threadbare simile—Before the battles won the Brentford hero sings Te Deum—But dont be wasteful of the little wit you have Do I not tell you it is decreed When was I posted for a vapouring Hector What but the recollections of my reiterated ravings resolves threats and imprecations could keep me steady assailed as I am by gentleness benevolence and saintlike charity
By the agency of subtlety hypocrisy and fraud I seek to rob her of what the world holds most precious By candour philanthropy and a noble expansion of heart she seeks to render me all that is superlatively great and good—Why did she not seek all this in a less offensive way Why did she oblige me
to become a disputant with a plebeian—Disputant—What do I say—Worse worse—Rival—Devil—Myriads of virtues could not atone the crime—Yet in this deep guilt she perseveres and glories—Can I forget—Fear me not nor rank my defeat among things possible—Be patient and lend an ear
To one sole object all my efforts point her mind must be prepared ay so that when the question shall be put chaste as that mind is it scarcely shall receive a shock Such is the continual tendency of my discourse Her own open and undisguised manners are my guide Not a principle she maintains but which by my cunning questions and affected doubts pushed to an extreme
adds links to the chain in which I mean to lead her captive
Perhaps Fairfax you will tell me this is the old artifice and that the minds of all women who can be said to have any mind must thus be inveigled to think lightly of the thing they are about to lose Granted And yet the difference is infinite They are brought to think thus lightly of chastity but should you or any one of the gallant phalanx attempt to make Anna St Ives so think she would presently cry buzz to the dull blockhead and give him his eternal dismission
Virtue with her is a real existence and as such must be adored Her passions are her slaves and in this and
this alone the lovely tyrant is the advocate of despotism She soon taught me that common arts would be treated by her not merely with determined and irrevocable repulse but with direct contempt Some very feeble essays presently satisfied me No encroachments of the touch no gloting of the eye no well feigned tremblings and lovers palpitations would for an instant be suffered by her Take the following as a specimen of my mode of attack
Among her variety of hypotheses she has one on mutability
Little she says as we know of matter and spirit we still know enough to perceive they are both instantaneously eternally and infinitely changing Of what the world has been through this series of
never beginning never ending mutation she can form nothing more than conjecture yet she cannot but think that the golden age is a supposition treated at present with ridicule it does not deserve By the laws of necessity mind unless counteracted by accidents beyond its control is continually progressive in improvement With some such accidents we are tolerably well acquainted Such are those which have been destructive of its progress notwithstanding the high attainments it had made in Greece and Rome The ruins still existing in Egypt are wonderful proofs of what it once was there though Egypt is at present almost unequalled in ignorance and depravity Who then
shall affirm changes still more extraordinary have not happened She has no doubt some revolution in the planetary system excepted that men will attain a much higher degree of innocence length of life happiness and wisdom than have ever yet been dreamed of either by historian fabulist or poet for causes which formerly were equal to the effects then produced are now rendered impotent by the glorious art of printing which spreads preserves and multiplies knowledge in despite of ignorance false zeal and despotism
Such was her discourse and thus vast were her views Nay urged on by my questions by the consequences which resulted from her own doctrines and by
the ardour of emanating benevolence she astonished me by her sublime visions for she proceeded to prove from seemingly fair deduction
that men should finally render themselves immortal should become scarcely liable to moral mistake should all act from principles previously demonstrated and therefore never contend should be one great family without a ruler because in no need of being ruled should be incapable of bodily pain or passion and should expend their whole powers in tracing moral and physical cause and effect which being infinite in their series will afford them infinite employment of the most rational and delightful kind
Oh How did the sweet enthusiast
glow ay and make me glow too while with a daring but consistent hand she sketched out this bold picture of illusion
But while the lovely zealot thus descanted on splendid and half incomprehensible themes what did I Why when I found her at the proper pitch when I saw benevolence and love of human kind beaming with most ardour in her eye and pouring raptures from her lip I then recalled her to her beloved golden age her times of primitive simplicity made her inform me what lovers then were and what marriage and what the bonds were which hearts so affectionate and minds so honest and pure demanded of each other
What think you could her answers to
all these questions be What but such as I wished Could lovers like these suspect each other Could they basely do the wrong to ask for bond or pledge Or if they wanted the virtue to charm could they still more basely ask rewards they did not merit Could they with the wretched selfish jealousy of a modern marriagemaker seek to cadaverate affection and to pervert each other into a utensil a commodity a thing appropriate to self and liable with other lumber to be cast aside No Fairfax she played fairly and deeply into my hand She created exactly such a pair of lovers as I could have desired for with respect to the truth and constancy with which she endowed them if I cannot be the thing I can wear the garb
ay and it shall become me too shall sit dégagé upon me and be thought my native dress
Think not that I am a mere listener far the reverse I throw in masterly touches which while they seem only to heighten her picture produce the full effect by me intended Thus when she described the faith and truth and love of the innocents of her own creation how did I declaim against the abuse to which such doctrine though immutably true was liable
Alas madam said I
had the unprincipled youths with which these times abound your powers of argument with their own principles how dreadful would be the effect How
many unsuspecting hearts would they betray
I am once more just returned from the palace of Alcina I broke off at the end of my last paragraph to attend my charmer and here again am I detesting myself for want of resolution and detesting myself still more for having made a resolution for having undertaken that which I am so eternally tempted to renounce Your sneer and your laugh are both ready—I know you Fairfax—The gentleman is sounding a retreat The enterprise is too difficult—No—I tell you no no no—But
I am almost afraid it is too damnable
I pretended to be exceedingly anxious concerning the delay and afflicted at not hearing any thing more from Sir Arthur If I did not do this it might be a clue to lead her to suspect hypocrisy considering how very ardent I was at the commencement And to say the truth I am weary enough of waiting though it is not my wish to be relieved by any expedition of Sir Arthurs who as I hinted to you before does not appear to be in the least hurry and whose unction for the gardeners son increases
But had you heard her console me Had you seen her kindness The tear glistening in her eye while she entreated
me to consider delay as a fortunate event which tended to permanent and ineffable happiness had you I say beheld her soul for it was both visible and audible Fairfax though you are the marauder of marriage land and the sworn foe of virginity even you would have pardoned my tergiversation
Did you never behold the sun burst forth from behind the riding clouds The scene that was gloomy dark and dismal is suddenly illumined what was obscure becomes conspicuous the bleak hills smile the black meadows assume a bright verdure quaking shadows dare no longer stay cold damps are dispelled and in an instant all is visible clear and radiant So vanish doubts when she begins to speak Thus in her presence
do the feelings glow and thus is gloom banished from the soul till all is genial warmth and harmony
These being my feelings now when I am escaped when I am beyond the circle of her sorceries think Fairfax be just and think how seductive how dangerous an enemy I have to encounter—Listen and judge
Oh Clifton—She speaks Listen I say to her spells—
Oh Clifton daily and hourly do I bless this happy accident this delay I think with the heroic archbishop I could have held my right hand firmly till the flames had consumed it could I but have brought to pass what this blessed event has already almost accomplished To behold your mind what
it is and to recollect what it so lately was is bliss unutterable I consider myself now as destined to be yours but whether I am or am not is perhaps a thing of little moment Let self be forgotten and all its petty interests What am I What can I be compared to what you may become The patriot the legislator the statesman the reconciler of nations the dispenser of truth and the instructor of the human race for to all these you are equal As for me however ardent however great my goodwill I cannot have the same opportunities Beside I must be just to myself and you and it delights me to declare I believe you have a mind capable of conceptions more vast than mine of plans more
daring and systems more deep and of soaring beyond me You have the strong memory the keen sensibility and the rapid imagination which form the poet It is my glory to repeat that your various powers when called forth have as variously astonished me To bid you persevere were now to wrong you for I think I dare affirm you cannot retreat You have at present seen too much thought too much known too much ever to forget In private you will be the honour of your family and the delight of your wife and in public the boast of your country and the admiration of the virtuous and the wise
I fell on my knee to the speaking deity She seemed delivering oracles
My passions rose my heart was full her eulogium made it loath and abhor its own deceit the words—Madam I am a villain—bolted to my lips there they quivering lingered in excruciating suspense and at last slunk back like cowards half wishing but wholly ashamed to do their office
By the immortal powers Fairfax it was past resisting Why should I not be all she has described The hero the legislator the great leader of this little world Ay why not She seemed to prophesy She has raised a flame in me which if encouraged might fertilize or desolate kingdoms Body of Caesar I know not what to say
Tis true she has treated me ill nay vilely It cannot be denied But ill
treatment itself from her is superior to all the maukish kindness which folly and caprice endeavour to lavish Fairfax would you did but behold her My heart was never so assailed before
My resolution is shaken I own but it is not obliterated No I will think again My very soul is repugnant to the supposition of leaving its envenomed tumours unassuaged and its angered stabs unavenged Yet if healed they could be she surely possesses that healing art—Once more I will think again
What you tell me in the Postscript to your last concerning Count Caduke Consult your dictionary or to save yourself trouble read Count Crazy alias Beaunoir is wholly unintelligible to
me But as you say the name of the gardeners son was several times mentioned by him I shall take an immediate opportunity of interrogating the squire of shrubs who I am certain from principle will when asked tell me all he knows
Apropos of poetry The panegyric of this sylph of the sunbeams gave me an impulse which I could not resist and the following was the offspring of my headlong and impetuous muse for such the hussey is whenever the fit is upon her I commit it as it may happen to your censure or applause with this stipulation if you do not like it either alter it till you do or write me another which both you and I shall like better If that
be not fair and rational barter I know nothing either of trade logic or common sense
ANACREONTIC
I
WHEN by the gently gliding stream
On banks where purple violets spring
I see my Delias beauties beam
I hear my lovely Delia sing
When hearts combine
And arms entwine
When fond caresses amrous kisses
Yield the height of human blisses
Entrancd I gaze and sighing say
Thus let me love my life away
II
Or when the jocund bowl we pass
And joke and wit and whim abound
When song and catch and friend and lass
In sparkling wine we toast around
When Bull and Pun
Rude riot run
And finding still the mirth increasing
Pealing laughter roars sans ceasing
I peal and roar and pant and say
Thus let me laugh my life away
III
When dreams of fame my fancy fill
Sweet soothing dreams of verse and rhyme
That mark the poets happy skill
And bid him live to latest time
Each rising thought
With music fraught
All full all flowing nothing wanting
All harmonious all enchanting
Oh thus in rapt delights I say
Thus let me sing my life away
IV
Oh lovely woman genrous wine
These potent pleasures let me quaff
Thy raptures wit oh make them mine
Oh let me drink and love and laugh
In flowing verse
Let me rehearse
How well Ive used your bounteous treasure
Then at last when full my measure
Tho pale my lip Ill smile and say
Ive livd the best of lives away
C CLIFTON
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London Grosvenor Street
WITHIN a week Oliver we shall once more meet What years of separation may afterward follow is more than I can divine I surely need not tell thee that this thought of separation were it not opposed by principle would indeed be painful and that it is at moments almost
too mighty for principle itself But we are the creatures of an omnipotent necessity and there can be but little need to remind thee that a compliance with the apparently best should ever be an unrepining and cheerful act of duty
I have had a conversation with Sir Arthur very singular in its kind which has again awakened sensations in their full force that had previously cost me many bitter struggles to allay I began with informing him of my intention to go down to WenbourneHill after which I proceeded to tell him it was my design to embark for America
He seemed surprised and said he hoped not
I answered I had reflected very fully on the plan and that I believed it was
scarcely probable any reason should occur which could induce me to change my purpose
The thing he replied might perhaps not be so entirely improbable as I supposed His family had great obligations to me I had even risked my life on various occasions for them They thought my talents very extraordinary In fine Oliver the good old gentleman endeavoured to say all the kind and as he deemed them grateful things his memory could supply and added that should I leave England without affording them some opportunity to repay their obligations they should be much grieved There were perhaps two or three very great difficulties in the way but still he was not sure they might not
be overcome Not that he could say any thing positively for matters were he must own in a very doubtful state He was himself indeed very considerably uneasy and undetermined but he certainly wished me exceedingly well and so with equal certainty at present did all his family His daughter his son himself were all my debtors
The good old gentlemans heart overflowed Oliver and by its ebullitions raised a tumult in mine which required every energy it possessed to repel What could I answer but that I had done no more for his family than what it was my duty to do for the greatest stranger and that if gratitude be understood to mean a
remembrance of favours received I and my family had for years indubitably been the receivers
He still persisted however in endeavouring to dissuade me from the thought of quitting the kingdom Not finding me convinced by his arguments he hesitated with an evident desire to say something which he knew not very well how to begin All minds on such occasions are under strong impulses My own wish that he should be explicit was eager and I excited him to proceed At last he asked if he might put a question to me assuring me it was far from his intention to offend but that he had some uneasy doubts which he could be very glad to have removed
I desired him to interrogate me freely and to assure himself that I would be guilty of no dissimulation
He knew my sincerity he said but if when I heard I should think any thing in what he asked improper I past dispute had a right to refuse
I answered that I suspected or rather was convinced I had no such right and requested him to begin
He again stammered and at last said—I think Mr Henley I have remarked some degree of esteem between you and my daughter—
He stopped—His desire not to wound my feelings was so evident that I determined to relieve him and replied—
I believe sir I can now divine the subject of your question You would
be glad to know if any thing have passed between us and what Perhaps you ought to have been told without asking but I am certain that concealment at present would be highly wrong
I then repeated as accurately as my memory would permit which is tolerably tenacious on this fubject all which Anna and I had reciprocally said and done It was impossible Oliver to make this recapitulation with apathy My feelings were awakened and I assure thee the emotions of Sir Arthur were as lively as in such a mind thou couldst well suppose The human heart seems to be meliorated and softened by age He wept a thing with him certainly not usual at the recital of his daughters heroic resolves in favour of
duty and at her respect for parental prejudices Her dread of rendering him unhappy made him even sob and burst into frequent interjections of—
She is a dear girl She is a heavenly girl I always loved her She is the delight of my life my souls treasure From her infancy to this hour she was always an angel
After hearing me fully confirm him in his esteem and affection for so superlative a daughter he added—You tell me Mr Henley that you freely informed my daughter you thought it was even her duty to prefer you to all mankind even though her father and friends should disapprove the match
I did sir I spoke from conviction
and should have thought myself culpable had I been silent
Perhaps so But that is very uncommon doctrine
It was not merely that more felicity would have been secured to ourselves but greater good I supposed would result to society
I have heard you explain things of that kind before I do not very well understand them but give me leave to ask—Are you still of the same opinion
I am sir—Not that I am so confident as I was—Mr Clifton has a very astonishing strength of mind and should it be turned to the worthy purposes of which it is capable I dare by no means decide positively in my own
favour and the decision which I now make against him is the result of the intimate acquaintance which I must necessarily have with my own heart added to certain dubious appearances as to his which I know not how to reconcile Of myself I am secure
And of him you have some doubts
I have but I ought in duty to add the appearances of their being unjust are daily strengthened
Sir Arthur paused ruminated and again seemed embarrassed At last he owned he knew not what to say turn which way he would the obstacles were very considerable His mind had really felt more distress within these two months than it had ever known before He could resolve on nothing Yet he
could not but wish I had not been quite so determined on going to America There was no saying what course things might take Mrs Clifton was very ill and in all probability could not live long But again he knew not what to say He certainly wished me very well—Very well—I was an uncommon young man I was a gentleman by nature which for aught he knew might be better than a gentleman by birth The world had its opinions perhaps they were just perhaps unjust He had been used to think with the world but he had heard so much lately that he was not quite so positive as he had been—This Oliver reminded me of the power of truth how it saps the strong holds of error and winds into the heart
and how incessantly its advocates ought to propagate it on every occasion He was not quite so well pleased as he had been with my father but that was no fault of mine he knew I had a very different manner of thinking Still he must say it was what he very little expected He hoped however that things would one way or other go more smoothly and he concluded with taking my hand pressing it very warmly and adding with considerable earnestness—
If you can think of changing your American project pray do—Pray do—
After which he left me with something like a heavy heart
And now Oliver how ought I to act The opposing causes of these doubts and
difficulties in his mind are evident The circumstances which have occurred in my favour being aided by the obstinate selfishness of my father by his acquired wealth and as I suppose by the embroiled state of Sir Arthurs affairs have produced an unhoped sor revolution in the sentiments of Sir Arthur But is it not too late Are not even the most tragical consequences to be feared from an opposition to Clifton Nay if his mind be what his words and behaviour speak would not opposition be unjust Were it not better with severe but virtuous resolution to repel these flattering and probably deceitful hopes than by encouraging them to feed the cankerworm of peace and add new force to the enemy within who rather
stunned than conquered is every moment ready to revive
Neither is Sir Arthur master of events Nor is his mind consistent enough to be in no danger of change
My heart is sufficiently prone to indulge opposite sentiments but it must be silenced it must listen to the voice of truth
Did I but better understand this Clifton I should better know how to decide That he looks up to her with admiration I am convinced She seems to have discovered the true key to his understanding as well as to his affections Even within this day or two I have observed symptoms very much in his favour How do I know but thus influenced he may become the first of mankind The
thought restores me to a sense of right Never Oliver shall self complacency make me guilty of what cannot but be a crime most heinous If such a mind may by these means be gained which would otherwise be lost shall it be extinguished by me Would not an assassination like this outweigh thousands of common murders Well may I shudder at such an act Oliver I am resolved If there be power in words or in reason my father shall comply
As far as I understand the human mind there is and even should he persevere there always must be something to me enigmatical in this instance of its efforts in Clifton Persevere however I most sincerely hope and even believe he
will—But should he not—The supposition is dreadful—Anna St Ives—My heart sinks within me—Can virtue like hers be vulnerable—Surely not—The more pure a woman is in principle the more secure would she be from common seducers But if the man can be found who possesses the necessary though apparently incompatible excess of folly and wisdom there is a mode by which such a woman is more open to the arts of deceit than any other And is not that woman Anna St Ives Nay more if he be not a prodigy of even a still more extraordinary kind is not that man Coke Clifton
He came in the heyday of youthful pride selfsatisfied selfconvinced rooted
in prejudice but abundant in ideas Argument made no impression for where he ought to have listened he laughed The weapons of wit never failed him and while he lanched them at others they recoiled and continually lacerated himself Of this he was insensible he felt them not or felt them but little His haughtiness never slumbered and to oppose him was to irritate not convince For four months he continued pertinaciously the same then without any cause known to me suddenly changed It was indeed too sudden not to be alarming
And yet my firm and cool answer to all this is that hypocrisy so foolish as well as atrocious is all but impossible—
Indeed Oliver I do not seek to wrong him I do not hunt after unfavourable conjectures they force themselves upon me or if I do it is unconsciously The passions are strangely perverse and if I am deceived as I hope I am it is they that misguide me
Clifton has just been with me Some correspondent from Paris has mentioned the visit paid to me instead of him by the Count de Beaunoir but in a dark and unintelligible manner and he came to enquire I confess Oliver while I was answering his interrogatories I seemed to feel that both you and I had drawn a false conclusion relative to secrecy
and that by concealment to render myself the subject of suspicion was an unworthy procedure However as my motives were not indirect whatever my silence might be I answered without reserve and told him all that had passed frankly owning my fears of his irritability as the reason why I did not mention the affair immediately
He laughed at the Counts rhodomontade acknowledged himself obliged to me and allowed that at that time my fears were not wholly causeless He behaved with ease and good humour and left me without appearing to have taken any offence
I shall be with thee on Tuesday I know it will be a day of feasting
to the family and I will do my best endeavour not to cast a damp on the hilarity of benevolence and friendship
F HENLEY
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
ALAS Louisa what are we—What are our affections what our resolves Taken at unguarded moments agitated hurried away by passion how seldom have we for a day together reason to be satisfied with our conduct
Not pleased with myself I doubt I
have given cause of displeasure to your brother My father was in part the occasion for a moment he made me forget myself—Louisa—Frank Henley is going to America He does not lightly resolve and his resolution seems fixed—Good God—I—Louisa—I am afraid I am a guilty creature—Weak—Very weak—And is not weakness guilt—But why should he leave us—Where will he find hearts more alive to his worth
Sir Arthur came to inform me of it he had been conversing with him and had endeavoured but without effect to dissuade him from his purpose He came and begged me to try I perhaps might be more successful
There was a marked significance in his manner and I asked him why
Nay my dear child said he and his heart seemed full you know why Mr Henley has told me why
What sir has he told
Nothing child—Sir Arthur took my hand—Nothing but what is honourable to you—I questioned him and you know he is never guilty of falsehood
No sir he is incapable of it
Well Anna try then to persuade him not to leave us Though he is a very excellent young man I am afraid he has not the best of fathers I begin to feel I have not been so prudent as I might have been and if Mr
Henley were to leave England the father might attribute it to us and—Sir Arthur hesitated—I have received some extraordinary letters from Abimelech of which I did not at first see the full drift but it is now clear every thing corresponds and my conversation with young Mr Henley has confirmed all I had supposed However he is a very good a very extraordinary young gentleman and I could wish he would not go I dont know what may happen
Your brother came in and Sir Arthur left me desiring me as he went to remember what he had said Clifton after an apology asked—Does it relate to me At that moment Frank entered No said I it relates to one who I did not
think would have been so ready to forsake his friends
A thousand thoughts had crowded to my mind a dread of having used him ungenerously unjustly a recollection of all he had done and all he had suffered his enquiring penetrating and unbounded genius his superlative virtues a horror of his being banished his native country by me of his wandering among strangers exposed to poverty perils and death with the conviction in his heart that I had done him wrong—My tumultuous feelings rushed upon me overpowered me and in a moment of enthusiasm I ran to him snatched his hand fell on my knee and exclaimed—For the love of God Mr Henley do not think of leaving us
Clifton like myself could not conquer the first assault of passion he pronounced the word madam in a tone mingled with surprise and severe energy which recalled me to myself—
You see said I turning to him what an unworthy weak creature I am—But Mr Henley has taken the strangest resolution—
What madam said your brother recovering himself and with some pleasantry is he for a voyage to the moon Or does he wait the arrival of the next comet to make the tour of the universe
Nay answered I you must join me and not treat my poor petition with ridicule—You must not go Mr Henley indeed you must not I Mr Clifton my father my brother we will none of
us hear of it We are all your debtors and it would be unjust in you to deprive us of every opportunity of testifying our friendship
Your brother Louisa made an effort worthy of himself repressed the error of his first feelings assumed the gentle aspect of entreaty and kindly joined me
We are indeed your debtors said he to Mr Henley But I hope it is not true I hope there is no danger that you should forsake us Where would you go Where can you be so happy
I mean first replied Frank to go to Wenbourne Hill and after that my intentions are for America
This Louisa brought on a long discussion I and your brother both endeavoured
to convince him it was his duty to remain in England that he could be more serviceable here and would find better opportunities for effecting that good which he had so warmly at heart than in any other country
He answered that though he was not convinced by our arguments he should think it his duty seriously to consider them But we could not make him promise any thing further Previous to his return from Wenbourne Hill he would determine
Indeed Louisa this affair lies very heavily upon my mind I am incessantly accusing myself as the cause of his exile And am I not By the manner of Sir Arthur I am sure he must
have said something very highly in my praise I have gone too far with your brother to recede that is now impossible It would be more flagrant injustice than even the wrong to Frank if a wrong it be and indeed Louisa I dread it is—Indeed I do—I dread it even with a kind of horror
I thought reason would have appeased these doubts ere this but every occasion I find calls them forth with unabated vigour Surely this mental blindness must be the result of neglect Had we but the will the determination it might be removed Oh how reprehensible is my inconsistency
The rapid decline of Mrs Clifton grieves me deeply Your brother too has frequently mentioned it with feelings
honourable to his heart He is now more than ever sensible of her worth He has been with me since I began to write this letter and there is not the least appearance of remaining umbrage on his mind It was indeed but of short duration though too strong and sudden not to be apparent
All kindness peace and felicity be with you
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
I WILL curse no more Fairfax Or if curse I do it shall be at my own fatuity I will not be the dilatory languid ranting moralizing Hamlet of the drama that has the vengeance of hell upon his lips and the charity of heaven
in his heart I will use not speak daggers—
Fairfax I am mad—Raging—The smothered and pentup mania must have vent—What Was not the page sufficiently black before—I am amazed at my own infatuation My very soul spurns at it—But tis past—Deceitful damned sex—Idiot that I was I began to fancy myself beloved—I—Blind deaf insensate driveler—Torpid blockish brainless mammet—Most sublime ass—Oh for a bib and barley sugar with the label Meacock pinned before and behind—
Fairfax I never can forgive my own absurd and despicable stupidity—Marriage—What with a woman in whose eye the perfect impression and hated
form of a mean rival is depicted—In colours glowing hot—Who lives revels triumphs in her heart—I marry such a woman—I—
I had rather be a toad
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others use
I am too full of phrensy Fairfax to tell thee what I mean but she has given me another proof more damning even than all the former of the gluttony with which her soul gorges Her gloating eye devours him ay I being present Nay were I this moment in her arms her arms would be clasping him not me with him she would carouse nor would any thing like me exist—Contagion—Poison and boiling oil—
Never before was patience so put to the proof—My danger was extreme With rage flaming in my heart I was obliged to wear complacency satisfaction and smiles on my countenance
The fellow has determined to ship himself for America—Would it were for the bottomless pit—And had you beheld her panic—St Lukes collected maniacs at the full of the moon could not have equalled her—Twas well indeed her frantic outrage was so violent or I had been detected and all had been lost—As it was I half betrayed myself—The fellows eye glanced at me However it gave me my cue and all things considered I afterward performed to a miracle Her own enthusiastic torrent swept all before it and gave me time
She was in an ecstasy reasoning supplicating conjuring panting I her friends the whole world must join her and join her I did It was the very relief of which hypocrisy stood in need I entreated this straightbacked youth stiff in determination to condescend to lend a pitying ear to our petitions to suffer us to permeate his bowels of compassion and avert this fatal and impending cloud fraught with evils misery and mischief—
But marry no—It could not be—Sentence was passed—He had been at the trouble to make a pair of scales and knew the weight to a scruple of every link in the whole chain of cause and effect—Teach him truly—Advisehim—Move him—When Who How—At
last compliance willing to be royally gracious said Well it would consider—Though there was but little hope—Nothing it had heard had any cogency of perscrutation—But in fine it would be clement and consider
Do you not see this fellow Fairfax Is he not now before your eyes Is he not the most consummate—But why do I trouble myself a moment about him—It is her—Her—
Nor is this all Did that devil that most delights in mischief direct every concurring circumstance they could not all and each be more uniform more coercive to the one great end This poor dotterel Sir Arthur is playing fast and loose with me He has been at his soundings—He—Imbecile animal—Could wish there were not so many difficulties—Is
afraid they cannot be all removed—Has his doubts and his fears—Twenty thousand pounds is a large sum and Mrs Clifton is very positive—His own affairs much less promising than he supposed—Then by a declension of hems hums and has he descended to young Mr Henley—A very extraordinary young gentleman—A very surprising youth—One made on purpose as it were for plumcake days high festivals and raree show—A prodigy—Not begotten born or bred in the dull blindmansbuff way of simple procreation but sent us on a Sunday morning down Jacobs ladder—Then for obligations to him count them who could—He must first study more arithmetic—And as for affection it was a very wayward
thing—Not always in peoples power—There was no knowing what was best—The hand might be given and the heart be wanting—And with respect to whether the opinions of the world ought to be regarded good truth he knew not Marry The world was much more ready to blame others than to amend itself and he had been almost lately persuaded not to care a fico for the world But for his part he was a godly christian and wished all for the best He had faith hope and charity which were enough for one
Do not imagine Fairfax the poor dotard would have dared to betray himself thus far had not I presently perceived his drift and wormed him of
these dismal cogitations of the spirit He beat about and hovered and fluttered and chirped mournfully like the poor infatuated bird that beholds the serpents mouth open into which it is immediately to drop and be devoured However having begun I was determined to make him unburden his whole heart If hereafter he can possibly find courage to face me in order to reproach I have my lesson ready
Out of thy own mouth will I judge thee sinner
Gangrened as my heart is I still find a satisfaction in this self convalescence The lady of mellifluous speech shall suborn no more no more shall lull me into beatific slumbers I have recovered
from my trance and what I dreamed was celestial I will demonstrate to be mere woman
From his own lips I learn that this insolent scoundrel received a visit from the Count de Beaunoir which was intended for me and out of tender pity to my body lest God ild us it should get a drilling he did bestow some trifle of that wit and reason of which he has so great a superflux upon the Count thereby to turn aside his wrathful ire
I heard the gentleman tell his tale and tickle his imagination with the remembrance of his own doctiloquy with infinite composure and whenever I put a question took care first to prepare a smile Every thing was well better could not be
With respect to Monsieur le Comte Ill take some opportunity to whisper a word in his ear It is not impossible Fairfax but that I may visit Paris even within this fortnight Not that I can pretend to predict They shall not think I fly them should any soul among them dare to dream of vengeance I know the Count to be as vain of his skill in the sword as he is of his pair of watch strings his ParisBirmingham snuffbox or the bauble that glitters on his finger I think I can give him a lesson at least I mean to try
My mothers health declines apace I know not whether it may not shortly be necessary for me to visit her The loss of her will afflict me but in all appearance
it is inevitable and I fear not far distant
Once more Fairfax should you again fall in company with the Count and he should give himself the most trifling airs assure him that I will do myself the honour to embrace him within a month at farthest from that date be it when it will
Adieu
C CLIFTON
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London GrosvenorStreet
HE is gone Louisa has left us his purpose unchanged his heart oppressed and his mind intent on promoting the happiness of those by whom he is exiled And what am I or who that I should do him this violence
What validity have these arguments of rank relationship and the worlds opprobrium Are they just He refuted them so he thought and so persists to think And who was ever less partial or more severe to himself
Louisa my mind is greatly disturbed His high virtues the exertion of them for the peculiar protection of me and my family and the dread of committing an act of unpardonable injustice if unjust it be are images that haunt and tantalize me incessantly
If my conclusions have been false and if his asserted claims be true how shall I answer those which I have brought upon myself The claims of your brother which he urges without remission are still stronger They have been
countenanced admitted and encouraged I cannot recede What can I do but hope ardently hope Frank Henley is in an error and that he himself may make the discovery Yet how long and fruitless have these hopes been My dilemma is extreme for if I have been mistaken act how I will extreme must be the wrong I commit
Little did I imagine a moment so full of bitter doubt and distrust as this could come Were I but satisfied of the rectitude of my decision there are no sensations which I could not stifle no affections which I could not calm nor any wandering wishes but what I could reprove to silence But the dread of a flagrant an odious injustice distracts me and I know not where or of whom to
seek consolation Even my Louisa the warm friend of my heart cannot determine in my favour
Your brother has been with me He found me in tears enquired the cause and truth demanded a full and unequivocal confidence I shewed him what I had been writing You may well imagine Louisa he did not read it with total apathy But he suppressed his own feelings with endeavours to give relief to mine He argued to shew me my motives had been highly virtuous He would not say—His candour delighted me Louisa—He would not say there was no ground for my fears he was interested and might be partial He believed
indeed I had acted in strict conformity to the purest principles but had I even been mistaken the origin of my mistake was so dignified as totally to deprive the act of all possible turpitude
He was soothing and kind gave high encomiums to Frank took blame to himself for the error of his former opinions and reminding me of the motives which first induced me to think of him tenderly asked if I had any new or recent cause to be weary of my task
What could I answer What but that I was delighted with the rapid change perceptible in his sentiments and with the ardour with which his enquiries were continued
Frank Henley is by this time at Wenbourne Hill You will see him
Plead our cause Louisa urge him to remain among us Condescend even to enforce my selfish motive that he would not leave me under the torturing supposition of having banished him from a country which he was born to enlighten reform and bless
There is indeed another argument but I know not whether it ought to be mentioned Sir Arthur owns he is in the power of the avaricious Abimelech and I believe is in dread of foreclosures that might even eject him from Wenbourne Hill This man must have been an early and a deep adventurer in the trade of usury or he never could have gained wealth so great as he appears to have amassed
Past incidents with all of which you
are acquainted have given Sir Arthur a high opinion of Frank and this added to his own fears I am persuaded would lead him to consider a union between us at present with complacency were not such an inclination opposed by other circumstances The open encouragement that he himself has given to Clifton is one and it is strengthened by all the interest of the other branches of our family Your brother is highly in favour with Lord Fitz Allen My aunt Wenbourne equally approves the match and Clifton and my brother Edward are become intimate As to me reason consistency and my own forward conduct oblige me to be the enemy of Frank
Louisa I scarcely know what I write
Think not I have abandoned myself to the capricious gusts of passion or that my love of uncontaminated and rigorous virtue is lessened No it is indecision it is an abhorrence of injustice which shake and disquiet me
Write to me let me know your sentiments and particularly how far your application to Frank when you have made it is successful I am anxious to receive your letter for I know it will inspire fortitude of which I am in great great need
A W ST IVES
LOUISA CLIFTON TO ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES
RoseBank
OH my dearest and ever dear Anna what shall I say how shall I assuage doubts that take birth in principles so pure and a heart so void of guile I know not I have before acknowledged the mist is too thick for me to penetrate
The worthy the nobleminded Frank has been with us and I could devise no better way than to shew him your letter He was greatly moved and collecting all the firmness of his soul resolutely declared that since your peace was so deeply concerned be his own sensations what they might he would conquer them and remain in England The heartfelt applause he bestowed upon you was almost insupportably affecting He has indeed a deep sense of your uncommon worth and he alone I fear on earth is capable of doing it justice
But things have taken a different turn and what can the best of us do when involved as we continually are in doubt and difficulty but act as you do
with impartial self denial and the most rigid regard to truth and virtue
Alas dear Anna I too am in need of support and in search of fortitude—My mother—She will not be long among us—A heart more benevolent a mind more exalted— She calls—I hear her feeble voice—Not even my Anna must rob her of my company for those few remaining moments she has yet to come I am her last consolation
L CLIFTON
I expect you will this post receive a letter from Frank that will speak more effectually to your heart than I have either the time to do or the power
FRANK HENLEY TO ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES
WenbourneHill
MADAM
YOUR generous and zealous friend has thought proper to shew me your letter I will not attempt to describe the sensations it excited but as your peace of mind is precious to me and more precious still perhaps to the interests of
society and since my departure would occasion alarms and doubts so strong I am determined to stay My motives for going I thought too forcible and well founded to be overpowered nor could they perhaps have been vanquished by any less cause If one of us must suffer the warfare of contending sentiments and principles let it be me It was to fly from and if possible forget or subdue them that I projected such a voyage Our duties to society must not cede to any effeminate compassion for ourselves We are both enough acquainted with those duties to render us more than commonly culpable should we be guilty of neglect
To describe my weakness and the contention to which my passions have
been lately subject might tend to awaken emotions in you which ought to be estranged from your mind Our lot is cast let us seek support in those principles which first taught us reciprocal esteem nor palliate our desertion of them by that self pity which would become our reproach We have dared to make high claims form high enterprises and assert high truths let us shew ourselves worthy of the pretensions we have made and not by our proper weakness betray the cause of which we are enamoured
You will not—no you are too just—I am sure madam you will not attribute resolutions like these which are more infinitely more painful to the heart
than they ought to be to any light or unworthy change of sentiment Superior gifts superior attainments and superior virtues inevitably beget admiration in those who discover them for their possessors Admiration is the parent of esteem and the continuance and increase of this esteem is affection or in its purest and best sense love To say I would not esteem and would not love virtue and especially high and unusual virtue would be both folly and guilt
But you have taught me how pure and selfdenying this love may be Oh that the man of your choice may but become all you hope and all of which his uncommon powers are capable Oh
that I may but see you as happy as you deserve to be and I think I shall then not bestow much pity upon myself
I have forborne madam to intrude the petty disquiets of another kind from which as you will readily imagine I cannot have been wholly free Need I say how much I disapprove my fathers views and the mode by which he would have them accomplished There is no effort I will not make to conquer and remove this obstacle It wounds me to the heart that you the daughter of his benefactor should for a moment be dependant on his avarice The injury and iniquity are equally revolting and there are moments when my prejudices falsely accuse me of being a participator in the guilt
I have had two conversations with my father they both were animated but though he was very determined his resolution begins to fail and as I have justice on my side and am still more determined than he I have no doubt that in a few days every thing which Sir Arthur has required of him he will be willing to undertake
However as in a certain sense all is doubtful which is yet to be done perhaps strict prudence would demand that Sir Arthur should not be led to hope till success is ascertained of which I will not delay a moment to send you information
I am c F HENLEY
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
THE moment Fairfax the trying the great the glorious moment approaches Every possible contributing cause calls aloud for expedition and reprobates delay This gardening fellow is gone For his absence I thank him but not for the resolute spirit with which
he intends to attack his father and make him yield He has a tongue that would silence the congregated clamours of the Sorbonne and dumbfound Belial himself in the hall of Pandemonium Tis certain he has a tough morsel to encounter and yet I fear he will succeed
This would destroy all—Marry her—No—By heaven no If the hopes of Abimelech be not stubborn enough to persevere they must and shall be strengthened His refusal is indispensably necessary in every view unless the view of marriage which I once more tell you Fairfax I now detest I should have no plea with her were that of delay removed
What is still worse this delay may be removed by another and more painful
cause My mother it appears declines rapidly her death is even feared and should it happen I cannot pretend to insist on the obstacles which her maternal cares and provisionary fears have raised
I can think of no certain expedient for this Abimelech but that of an anonymous letter Neither the writing nor the style must appear to be mine nor must the hand that writes it understand its purport Tyros and ignorant as my opponents are in the tricks and intrigues of amorous stratagem still they have too much understanding not to be redoubtable
Those old necromancers Subtlety and Falsehood must forge the magic armour and the enchanted shield under which I
fight Like wizards of yore they must render me invisible and the fair form of the foolish Clifton they have imagined must only be seen
Honest Ab y or I mistake him is too worthy a fellow to desert so good a cause And this cloudcapt lady whose proud turrets I have sworn to level with the dust will not descend to plead the approaching death of my mother when I shall urge the injustice of delay—Ay Fairfax the injustice I mean to command to dare to overawe that is the only oratory which can put her to the rout She loves to be astonished and astonished she shall be If I do not shrink from myself her fall is infallible
My heart exults in the coming joy Never more will the milky pulp of compassion
rise to mar the luxurious meal She has been writing to the fellow Fairfax ay and has shewn me her letter For let her but imagine that truth or virtue or principle or any other abortive being of her own creation requires her to follow the whims of her disjointed fancy and what frantic folly is there of which she is incapable
Tis maddening to recollect but she doats on the fellow absolutely doats I am the tormenting demon that has appeared to interrupt her happiness she the devoted victim sacrificed to shield me from harm The thought of separation from him is distracting and every power must be conjured up to avert the horrid woe
Never before did my feelings support
such various and continual attacks never did I endure infidelity so open or insult so unblushing But patience the day of vengeance is at hand or rather is here This moment will I fly and take it Expect to hear
of battles sieges disastrous chances and of moving accidents but not of hair breadth scapes
—Escape she cannot I go She falls
C CLIFTON
FRANK HENLEY TO ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES
WenbourneHill
IT is now a week since I wrote to you madam at which time I took some pleasure in acquainting you with my hopes of success These hopes continued to increase and my father had almost promised to agree to the just proposals I made when two days ago he
suddenly and pertinaciously changed his opinion
I am sorry to add that he now appears to be much more determined than ever and that I am wholly astonished at and wholly unable to account for this alteration of sentiment I delayed sending you the intelligence by yesterdays post hoping it was only a temporary return of former projects which I could again reason away But I find him so positive so passionate and so inaccessible to reason that I am persuaded some secret cause has arisen of which I am ignorant Yet do not be dejected dear madam nor imagine I will lightly give it up as a lost cause—No—My mind is too much affected and too earnestly bent
on its object not to accomplish it if possible
I received your letter but have no thanks that can equal the favour I hope the emotions to which it gave birth were worthy such a correspondent I can truly and I believe innocently say my heart sympathises in all your joys hopes and apprehensions and that my pleasure at the progress of Mr Clifton in the discovery of truth and the practice of virtue is but little less than your own
I am glad you thought proper to be cautious of giving Sir Arthur any unconfirmed expectations and I promise
you to exert every effort to effect a propitious change in the present temper and resolutions of my father
I am dear madam c F HENLEY
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
WHEN last I wrote my resolution was taken and I determined on immediate attack But I went in a seeming unlucky moment though I much mistake if it were not the very reverse
The supposed misfortune I had foreseen fell upon me The squire of
preachers had fairly overcome his fathers obstinacy and induced him to give ground Instead of having received the news of his determined persistency I found her with a letter in her hand informing her that he had begun to relent and that his full acquiescence was expected
To have commenced the battle at so inauspicious a moment would have been little worthy of a great captain My resolution was instantly formed
After acting as much ecstasy as I could call up I hastened home and wrote my projected letter to honest Aby I threw my hints together in Italian that they might not be understood by the agent whom I meant to employ This was my groom an English lad whom I met
with at Paris who spells well and writes a good hand I pretended I had crushed my finger and could not hold a pen and without letting him understand the intent of my writing or even that it was a letter I dictated to him as follows a transcript of which I send to you Fairfax first that you may sigh and see what the blessing of a ready invention is and next as an example which you may copy or at least from which you may take a hint if ever you should have occasion
SO you have been persuaded at last to give up your point my old friend And can you swallow this tale of a tub A fine cock and a bull story has been dinned in your
ears Dont believe a word ont I know the whole affair and though you dont know me be assured I mean you well and I tell you that if you will but hold out stoutly every thing will soon be settled to your hearts desire She is dying for love of him and he cant see it She will never have the man they mean for her I can assure you of that and what is more he will never have her What I tell you I know to be true No matter who I am If I knew nothing of the affair how could I write to you And if the advice I give be good what need you care whom it comes from Only dont let your son see this if you do it will spoil all You perceive how blind he is to his own
good and how positive too Keep your counsel but be resolute Look around you persist in your own plans and the hall the parks the gardens the meadows the lands you see are all your own I am sure you cannot misunderstand me But mark my words be close keep your thoughts to yourself You know the world You have made your own fortune dont mar it by your own folly Tell no tales I say nor if you are a wise man give the least hint that you have a friend in a corner
This I dictated to my amanuensis pretending to translate it out of the paper I held in my hand and which I took care to place before him so that he
should see it was really written in a foreign language I likewise once or twice counterfeited a laugh at what I was reading and ejaculated to myself—This is a curious scrap
When he had finished I gave him half a crown praised his handwriting which I told him I wanted to see for perhaps I might find him better employment than currying of horses and sent him about his business too much pleased and elated and his ideas led into too distant a train to harbour the least suspicion
Nor did my precautions end here I immediately ordered my horse and rode without any attendant full speed to Hounslow I there desired the landlord of an inn at which I am personally
known though not by name to send one of his own lads post to the market town next to WenbourneHill and there to hire a countryman without explaining who or what he himself was to deliver the letter into the hands of honest Aby I requested the landlord to choose an intelligent messenger and backed my request with a present bribe and a future promise
My plan was too well laid to miscarry and accordingly yesterday a mournful account arrived from the young orator that judgment is reversed and he in imminent danger of being cast in costs
And now Fairfax once more I go—Expedition resolution a torrent
of words a storm of passion and the pealing thunder that dies away in descending rains The word is Anna St Ives revenge and victory
C CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
ONCE more Fairfax here am I
Well And how—
Not so fast good sir All things in their turn The story shall be told just as it happened and your galloping curiosity must be pleased to wait
I knew my time the hour when she
would retire to her own apartment and the minute when I might find admission for she is very methodical as all your very wise people more or less are I had given Laura her lesson that is had told her that I had something very serious to say to her mistress that morning and desired her to take care to be out of the way that she might be sure not to interrupt us The sly jade looked with that arch significance which her own experience had taught her and left me with—Oh Mr Clifton
And here I could make a remark but that would be anticipating my story
You may think Fairfax that marshalled as my hopes and fears were in
battle array something of inward agitation would be apparent In reality not only some but much was visible It caught her attention and luckily caught I attempted to speak and stammered A false step as it would have been most fatal so was it more probable at the moment of onset than afterward when the heated imagination should have collected arranged and begun to pour forth its stores
The philosophy of the passions was the theme I first chose though at the very moment when my spirits were all fluttering with wild disorder But my faultering voice which had I wished I could not have commanded aided me for the tremulous state of my frame threw hers into most admirable confusion
What was it that disturbed me What had I to communicate She never saw me thus before It was quite alarming
Madam—Observe Fairfax I am now the speaker but I shall remind you of such trifles no more If you cannot distinguish the interlocutors you deserve not to be present at such a dialogue Madam I own my mind is oppressed by thoughts which however just in their purpose however worthy in their intent inspire all that hesitation that timidity that something like terror which I scarcely know how to overcome Yet what should I fear Am I not armed by principle and truth Why shun a declaration of thoughts that are founded in right or tremble like a
coward that doubted of his cause I am your scholar and have learned to subdue sensations of which the judgment disapproves From you likewise have I learned to avow tenets that are demonstrable and not to shrink from them because I may be in danger of being misconstrued or even suspected Pardon me I do you wrong Your mind is superior to suspicion It is a mean an odious vice and never could I esteem the heart in which it found place I forget myself and talk to you as I would to a being of an infinitely lower order
Mr Clifton—
Do not let your eye reprove me I have not said what is not and who better knows than you how much it
is beneath us to refrain from saying what is
Do not keep me in this suspense I am sure there is something very uncommon in your thoughts Speak
Thoughts will be sometimes our masters the best and wisest of us cannot always command them That I have daily repressed them have struggled against rooted prejudices and confirmed propensities and have ardently endeavoured to rise to that proud eminence toward which you have continually pointed you are my witness
I am
Protracted desires imagined pleasures and racking pains and oh how often have they all been felt no longer sway me They have been repulsed disdained
trodden under foot You have taught me how shameful it is to be the slave of passion Truth is now my object justice my impulse and virtue high virtue my guide
Oh Clifton Speak thus be thus ever
The moment it appeared I knew that delay was ominous
Nay Clifton—
Hear me madam—Yes ominous I see no end to it have every thing to fear from it and nothing to hope—There is a thought—Ay that verges to madness—I have a rival— But I will forget it—at least will try Who can deny that it is excruciating—But I am actuated at present by another and a nobler motive You know madam
what you found me and I hope you are not quite unconscious of what you have made me You have taught me principles to which I mean to adhere and truths I intend to assert have opened views to me of immense magnitude In your society I am secure But habits are inveterate and easily revived and were I torn from you I myself know not the degree of my own danger Yes madam fain indeed would I forget there is such a person as Frank Henley Yet how By what effort what artifice Say Teach me What though my heart reproaches me with its own foibles who can prevent possibilities mere possibilities in a case like this from being absolute torments My soul pants and
aches after certainty The moment I ask myself what doubt there can be of Anna St Ives I answer none none Yet the moment after forgetting this question alarms probabilities past scenes and intolerable suppositions swarm to assault me without relaxation or mercy
Clifton you said you had a nobler motive
I merit the reproach madam These effusions burst from me are unworthy of me and I disclaim them You have pardoned many of my strays and mistakes and I am sure will pardon this For the love of fame Fairfax do not suffer the numerous masterstrokes of this dialogue to escape you I cannot stay to point them out Yes madam I
have a nobler motive Yet enlarged as your mind is I know not how to prepare you calmly to listen to me without alarm and without prevention Strange as it may seem I dread to speak truth even to you
If truth it be speak and fear nothing Propose but any adequate and worthy purpose and there is no pain no danger no disgrace from which if I know myself I would shrink
No disgrace madam
Your words and looks both doubt me—Put me to the proof Propose I say an adequate and worthy purpose and let your test be such as nature shudders at then despise me and my principles if I recoil
The union of marriage demands reciprocal
unequivocal and unbounded confidence for how can we pretend to love those whom we cannot trust The man who is unworthy this unbounded confidence is most unworthy to be a husband and it were even better he should shew his bad qualities by basely and dishonestly deserting her who had committed herself body and soul to his honour than that such qualities should discover themselves after marriage There is no disgrace can equal the torment of such an alliance
I grant it
You have attained that noble courage which dares to question the most received doctrines and bring them to the test of truth Who better than you can appreciate the falsehood and the force
of the prejudices of opinion Yet are you sure madam that even you are superior to them all
Far otherwise Would I were I am much too ignorant for such high such enviable perfection
But is it not possible that some of the most common and if I dared I should say the most narrow the most selfevident of these prejudices may sway and terrify you from the plain path of equity Dare you look the worlds unjust contumelies stedfastly in the face Dare you answer for yourself that you will not shudder at the performance of what you cannot but acknowledge nay have acknowledged to be an act of duty
I confess your preparation is alarming and makes me half suspect myself
half desirous to retract all I have thought all I have asserted Yet I think I dare do whatever justice can require
You think—
Once more bring me to the proof I feel a conscious Again you make me a braggart a virtuous certainty
In opposition to the whole world its prepossessions reproofs revilings persecutions and contempt
The picture is terrifying but ought not to be and I answer yes in opposition to and in defiance of them all
Then—You are my wife
How
Be firm Start not from the truth You are my wife Ask yourself the meaning of the word Can set forms and ceremonies unite mind to mind
And if not they what else What but community of sentiments similarity of principles reciprocal sympathies and an equal ardour for and love of truth Can it be denied
It cannot
You are my wife and I have a right to the privileges of a husband
A right
An absolute an indefeasible right
You go too fast
They are your own principles they are principles founded on avowed and indisputable truths I claim justice from you
Clifton
Justice
This is wrong—Surely it is wrong—This cannot be
Instead of the chaste husband such as better times and spirits of higher dignity have known who comes with lips void of guile the rightful claimant of an innocent heart in which suspicion never harboured imagine me to be a traitorous wretch who poorly seeks to gratify a momentary a vile a brutal passion Imagine me I say such a creature if you can Once I should have feared it but you have taught my thoughts to soar above such vulgar terrors My appeal is not to your passions but your principles Inspired by that refulgent ardour which animates you with a noble enthusiasm you have yourself bid me put you to the proof You cannot will not dare not be unjust
And now Fairfax behold her in the
very state I wished Cowed silenced overawed Her ideas deranged her tongue motionless wanting a reply her eyes wandering in perplexity her cheeks growing pale her lips quivering her body trembling her bosom panting Behold I say the wild disorder of her look Then turn to me and read secure triumph concealed exultation and bursting transport on my brow While impetuous fierce and fearless desire is blazing in my heart and mounting to my face See me in the very act of fastening on her And see—
Curses—Everlasting curses pursue and catch my perfidious evil genius—See that old Incubus Mrs Clarke enter with a letter in her hand that had arrived express and was to be delivered
instantly—Our mutual perturbation did not escape the prying witch my countenance red hers pale—The word begone maddened to break loose from my impatient tongue My eyes however spoke plainly enough and the hag was unwillingly retiring when a faint—Stay Mrs Clarke—called her back
As I foreboded it was all over for this time She opened the letter What its contents were I know not and impossible as it is that they should relate to me I yet wish I did I am sure by her manner they were extraordinary I could not ask while that old beldam was present Had she been my grandmother on this occasion I should have abused her and the eye of the young lady very plainly told me she wished me away It
was prudent to make the best retreat possible and with the best grace I therefore bowed and took my leave very gravely telling her I hoped she would seriously consider what I had said and again emphatically pronounced the word justice
You have now Fairfax been a spectator of the scene and if its many niceties have escaped you if you have not been hurried away as I was by the tide of passion and amazed at the successful sophistries which flowed from my tongue sophistries that are indeed so like truth that I myself at a cooler moment should have hesitated to utter them if I say the deep art with which the whole was conducted and the high acting with which I personified the only possible Being that
could subjugate Anna St Ives do not excite your astonishment why then you really are a dull fellow But I know you too well Fairfax to do you such injustice as this supposes Victory had declared for me I read her thoughts They were labouring for an answer I own but she was too much confounded And would I have given her time to rally No I should then have merited defeat
The grand difficulty however is vanquished she will hear me the next time with less surprise and the emotions of passion genuine honest mundane passion must take their turn for not even she Fairfax can be wholly exempt from these emotions I have not the least fear that my eloquence should fail me and
absolute victory excepted I could not have wished for greater success
I cannot forget this letter It disturbs and pesters my imagination I supposed it to be from Edward who has been at Bath but my valet has just informed me he is returned Perhaps it is from my sister and if so by its coming express my mother is dead I really fear it bodes me harm—I am determined to rid myself of this painful suspense I will therefore step to Grosvenorstreet I may as well face the worst at once You shall hear more when I return
Oh Fairfax I could curse most copiously
in all heathenish and christian tongues She has shut herself up and refuses to see me This infernal fellow Frank Henley is returned too He arrived two hours after the express I suspect it came from him nay I suspect—Flames and furies—I must tell you
I have seen Laura though scarcely for two minutes She is afraid she is watched It is all uproar confusion and suspicion at Sir Arthurs But the great curse is my groom the lad that I told you copied my letter to Abimelech has been sent for and privately catechised by her and her paramour And what confirms this most tormenting of all conjectures is the absence of the fellow he has not been home since nor at the stables
though he was always remarkably punctual but has sent the key so that he has certainly absconded
Had I not been a stupid booby had I given Laura directions to keep out of the way of Anna but in the way of taking messages for her she might have received the express and all might have been well Such a blockheadly blunder well deserves castigation
Ill deny the letter Fairfax They have no proof and Ill swear through thick and thin rather than bring myself into this universal this damnatory disgrace I know indeed she will not believe me and I likewise know that now it must be open war between us For do not think that I will suffer myself to be thus shamefully beaten out of the field
No by Lucifer and his Tophet I will die a foaming maniac fettered in straw ere that shall happen If not by persuasion she shall be mine by chicanery or even by force I will perish Fairfax sooner than desist
Oh for an agent a coadjutor worthy of the cause He must and shall be found
The uncle and aunt must be courted the father I expect will side with her The brother too must be my partisan for it will be necessary I should maintain an intercourse and the shew of still wishing for wedlock
I am half frantic Fairfax To be baffled by such an impossible accident after having acted my part with such supreme excellence is insupportable But
the hag Vengeance shall not slip me No I have fangs to equal hers ay and will fasten her yet I have been injured insulted frustrated and fiends seize me if I relent
C CLIFTON
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
LOUISA—My dear my kind my affectionate Louisa—My friend—What shall I say How shall I begin I am going to rend your heart—
Keep this letter from the sight of Mrs Clifton if she have not already been told do not let her know such a letter
exists—Oh this brother—But he is not your brother—Error so rooted so malignant so destructive exceeds all credibility
He came to me yesterday morning as was his custom There was something in his look which could I but have read it was exceedingly descriptive of the workings of his heart It was painful to see him He endeavoured to smile and for a moment to talk triflingly but could not He was in a tremor his mouth parched his lips white
His next essay was to philosophise but in this attempt too he was entirely at fault
The passions are all sympathetic and none more so than this of trepidation I cannot recollect what the ideas were that passed hastily through my mind but I
know he excited much alarm doubt and I believe suspicion
But though he had found all this difficulty to begin having begun he recovered himself very surprisingly His colour returned his voice became firm his ideas clear his reasoning energetic and his manner commanding He seemed to mould my hopes and apprehensions as he pleased to inspire terror this moment and the excess of confidence the next
Louisa my heart bleeds to say it but his purposes were vile his hypocrisy odious and—I must forbear and speak of foul deeds in fair terms I know not how many prejudices rise up to warn me one that I am a woman or rather a girl another that I am writing to the mans
sister a third that she is my friend and so on with endless et ceteras No matter that truth is to this friend infinitely more precious than a brother I may be allowed to feel indignation but not to express my feeling
But the most distressing the most revolting part of all is that he harangued like the apostle of truth the name of which he vilely prophaned in favour of the besest most pitiful most contemptible of vices the mere vainglory of seduction He has not even so much as the gratification of sensual appetite to plead in his excuse I am wrong it was not vain glory Vanity itself contemptible as such a stimulus would have been was scarcely a secondary motive It was something worse it was revenge
My mind has been wholly occupied in retracing his past behaviour I can think on no other subject and every trait which recollection adds is a confirmation of this painful idea He does not wish to marry me and I almost doubt whether he ever did at least fully and unreservedly
He came to me Louisa and began with painting the torments of delay and the pangs of jealousy which he endeavoured to excuse and concluded with a bold appeal to my justice a daring overawing confounding appeal He called upon me at my peril and as I respected truth and virtue to deny his claim
And what was this claim—I was his wife—In every pure and virtuous
sense his wife and he demanded the privilege of a husband—Demanded Louisa—Demanded—And demanded it in such a tone with such rapid overbearing bold expressions and such an apparent consciousness of right that for a moment my mind was utterly confused
Not that it ceded no not an instant I knew there was an answer a just and irrefragable one but I could not immediately find it He perceived my disorder and you cannot imagine what a shameless and offensive form his features assumed I know not what he would not instantly have attempted had not while I was endeavouring to awake from my lethargy Mrs Clarke come in She brought me a letter—It was sent express
—The hand writing was Franks Agitated as I was suspicion influenced me and I retreated a few steps—I opened the letter and the first words I saw were—Beware of Mr Clifton—
It contained only half a dozen lines and I read on What follows were its contents—
Beware of Mr Clifton—Had I not good cause madam I would not be so abrupt an accuser but I am haunted tortured by the dread of possibilities and therefore send this away express—Beware of Mr Clifton—I will not be long after the letter and I will then explain why I have written what to you may appear so strange
F HENLEY
Think Louisa what must be the effect of such a letter coming at such a moment—I believe I was in no danger though if there be a man on the face of the earth more dangerous than any other it is surely Clifton But the watchful spirit of Frank seems placed like my guardian angel to protect me from all possible harm
My mind debated for a moment whether it were not wrong to distrust the power of truth and virtue and not to let Mr Clifton see I could demolish the audacious sophistry by which he had endeavoured to confound and overwhelm me But my ideas were deranged and I could not collect sufficient fortitude Oh how dangerous is this confusion of the judgment and how desirable that heavenly
presence of mind which is equal to these great these trying occasions I therefore thought it more prudent to suffer him to depart and suspect vilely of me than to encounter the rude contest which he would more audaciously recommence were I to send away Mrs Clarke which he might even misconstrue into a signal of approbation These fears prevailed and I desired her to stay and by my manner told him I wished his absence
Louisa how shall I describe my anguish of heart at seeing all those hopes of a mind so extraordinary for extraordinary it is even in guilt at once overthrown It was indeed iteration of anguish What Can guile so perfectly assume the garb of sincerity Can hypoprisy
wear so impenetrable a mask How shall we distinguish What guide have we How be certain that the next seeming virtuous man we meet is not a—Well well Louisa—I will remember—Brother My Louisa knows it is not from the person but from the vice that I turn away with disgust Would I willingly give her heart a pang Let her tell me if she can suspect it She has fortitude she has affection but it is an affection for virtue truth and justice She will endeavour to reform error the most obdurate So will I so will all that are worthy the high office But she will not wish me either to marry with or to countenance this error Marry—How does my soul shudder at the thought His reasoning was just
seduction would have been a petty injury or rather a blessing compared to this master evil He was most merciful when he meant me as he thought most destruction I have been guilty of a great error The reformation of man or woman by projects of marriage is a mistaken a pernicious attempt Instead of being an act of morality I am persuaded it is an act of vice Let us never cease our endeavours to reform the licentious and the depraved but let us not marry them
The letter had not been delivered more than two hours before Frank arrived
You may think Louisa how hard he had ridden but he refused to imagine himself fatigued He brought another letter which Abimelech had received but which for some hours he obstinately refused to give up and for this reason Frank fent off the express A letter not of Cliftons writing but of his invention and sending
Finding that Frank was likely to prevail on his father to raise the money for Sir Arthur and obviate all further impediments to our marriage Clifton fearful that it should take place wrote anonymously to Abimelech to inform him I was in love with Frank and to encourage him to persist But read
the letter yourself the following is a true copy of it
If such a letter be his I am sure Louisa you will not say I have thought or spoken too unkindly of him and that it is his we have indubitable proof though it was anonymous and not in his handwriting
You no doubt remember Louisa the short story of the English lad whom your brother hired at Paris It was written by him though innocently and without knowing what was intended This lad has an aunt who after having
laboured to old age is now lame infirm and in need of support The active Frank has been with her has aided her with money and consoled her with kindness The lad himself was desirous of assisting her and Frank willing to encourage industry in the young gave him some writings to copy at his leisure hours By this accident he knew the lads handwriting
I forgot to mention in its proper place the astonishment of Frank at the sudden change in his father and the firm resolution he took to discover the cause of this change The obstinacy of Abimelech was extreme but Frank was still more pertinacious more determined and so unwearied and incessant
in his attacks on his father that the old man at last could resist no longer and shewed him this letter
From what has preceded that is from his manner of acting you may well imagine what the alarms and sensations of Frank were He brought the letter up with him for he would not trust it out of his own custody and immediately went himself to Cliftons stables in search of the lad brought him to me and then first shewed him the letter which that no possible collusion might be alleged he had left in my keeping and then asked if it were not his handwriting The lad very frankly and unhesitatingly answered it was except the direction which this plotting Clifton
had procured to be written by some other person
Without telling the lad more than was necessary Frank advised him to quit his service for that there was something relating to that letter which would certainly occasion a quarrel and perhaps worse between him and his master and as it would be prudent for him to keep out of the way he sent him down to WenbourneHill where the lad is at present
And now what shall I say to my Louisa How shall I sooth the feelings of my friend Do they need soothing Does she consider all mankind as her
relations and brothers or does she indeed imagine that one whose principles are so opposite to her own is the only brother she possesses Will she grieve more for him than she would for any other who should be equally unfortunate in error Or does she doubt with me whether grief can in any possible case be a virtue And if so is there any virtue of which she is incapable What is relation what is brother what is self if relation brother or self be at war with truth And does not truth command us to consider beings exactly as they are without any respect to this relationship this self
But I know my Louisa she will never be impatient under trial however
severe nor foolishly repine for the past though she will strenuously labour for the future
All good all peace all happiness all wisdom be with her
A W ST IVES
LOUISA CLIFTON TO HER BROTHER COKE CLIFTON
RoseBank
SIR
ON Friday morning I received the original letter from Anna St Ives of which the inclosed is a copy and on the following day about a quarter of an hour before midnight my mother expired I mention these circumstances
together because they were noticed by those who were necessarily acquainted with them as having a relation to each other whether real or imaginary much or little I do not pretend to determine but I will relate the facts and leave them to your own reflection and I will forbear all colouring that I may not be suspected of injustice
My mother as you know has been daily declining and was indeed in a very feeble state She seemed rather more cheerful that morning than she had been lately and at her particular request I went to visit the wife of farmer Beardmore who is a worthy but poor woman and who being at present dejected in consequence of poverty and ill health my mother thought she might
be more benefited by the kindness of the little relief we could afford her if delivered by me than if sent by a less soothing and sympathetic hand I should hope sir it would be some consolation to you to learn that my mothers active virtue never forsook her while memory and mind remained But of this you are the best judge
While I was gone the postman brought the letter of my friend and as her letters were always read to my mother and as I likewise have made it a rule and a duty not to have any secrets to conceal from her or indeed from any body she had no scruple to have the letter opened because she expected to find consolation and hope for till the arrival of this the letters of Anna St
Ives have lately been all zealous in your praise
I will leave you sir to imagine the effect which a letter beginning as this did must have on a mind and body worn to such a tremulous state of sensibility Coming as it did first into my mothers hands the very caution which the benevolent heart of Anna dictated produced the effect she most dreaded My mother had still however a sufficient portion of her former energy to hear it to the end
In about an hour after this happened I returned and found her in extreme agitation of mind I neglected no arguments no efforts to calm her sensations and I succeeded so far that after a time she seemed to be tolerably resigned
She could not indeed forget it and the subject was revived by her several times during the day
My chief endeavour was to lead her thoughts into that train which by looking forward to the progress of virtue is most consoling to the mind of virtue
She seemed at last fatigued and about eleven oclock at night fell into a doze About a quarter before twelve I perceived her countenance distorted I was alarmed I spoke to her and received no answer I endeavoured to excite attention or motion but in vain A paralytic stroke had deprived her of sensation In this state she remained fourandtwenty hours and about midnight departed
I have thought it strictly incumbent on me to relate these circumstances But I should consider myself as very highly culpable did I seek to aggravate or to state that as certainty which can never be any thing more than conjecture My mother was so enfeebled that we began to be in daily apprehension of her death I must not however conceal that the thought of your union with Anna St Ives had been one of her principal pleasures ever since she had supposed it probable and that she had spoken of it incessantly and always with that high degree of maternal affection and cheering hope which you cannot but know was congenial to her nature
The disappointment itself was great
but the turpitude that attended it much greater This I did not endeavour to palliate How could I I have told you I had no resource for consolation either for myself or her but in turning like Anna St Ives from the individual to the whole
I would endeavour to say something that should shew you the folly of such conduct for the folly of it is even more excessive than the vice but not to mention the state of my own mind at this moment I despair of producing any effect since Anna St Ives herself aided by so many concurring motives has failed in the generous and disinterested attempt
I imagine you will be down at the funeral Perhaps it is proper I cannot
say for indeed I do not very well understand many of what are called the proprieties of custom I own I am weak enough to feel some pain at meeting you under the present circumstances But since it is necessary I should act and aid you in various family departments if you should come down I will not yield to these emotions but considering you as an erring brother will endeavour to perform what duty requires
L CLIFTON
P S
Previous to this I wrote three different letters but they were all as I fear too expressive of those strong sensations which I have found it very
difficult to calm I destroyed them not because they were wrong but lest they should produce a wrong effect
COKE CLIFTON TO HIS SISTER LOUISA CLIFTON
London Dover Street
MADAM
I HAVE received your very lenient equitable calumniating insulting letter and I would have you put it down in your memorandumbook that I will carefully remember the obligation It perfectly accords with your sublime
ideas of justice to decide before you have heard both parties and it is equally consistent with your notions of sisterly affection that you should pass sentence on a brother What is a brother or all he may have to say to you who more infallible than the holy father himself have squared a set of rules of your own by which you judge as you best know how
Your insinuations concerning the death of my mother are equally charitable and I have already learnt them by rote Yes madam assure yourself they will not be forgotten Any suspense of judgment would have ill become a lady so clear sighted However possible it may be that Anna St Ives may herself have been imposed upon and I both
ignorant and innocent of this forged letter yet for you to have entertained any doubts in my favour would have partaken too much of the fogs of earth for so inspired and celestial a lady
But I must tell you madam since you can so readily forego equity in a brothers behalf I can and will be as ready to forget and cast off the sister I never yet was or will be injured with impunity I would have you note down that
I mean to be at RoseBank tomorrow or the day after to attend the funeral and take such order as my affairs may require and though I have as little affection for your company as you have for mine I imagine it will be quite necessary for you to be there not only
that you should be present to execute all orders but likewise to listen to a few hints which I shall probably think proper to communicate
In the mean time madam be industrious to propagate the report if you think fit that I have caused anonymous letters to be written to Sir Arthurs steward have endeavoured to betray Anna St Ives and have been the death of my mother Spread the agreeable intelligence I say as quickly and as widely as you can and when you meet me you shall receive a brothers thanks
C CLIFTON
ABIMELECH HENLEY TO SIR ARTHUR ST IVES BARONET
WenbourneHill
Most onnurable Sir my ever onnurd Master
I DO hear of strange queerums and quicksets that have a bin trap laid for your ever gracious onnur and for the mercifool lovin kindness of sweet missee Whereof I be all in a quandary for it
do seem I wus within an ames ace of a havin bin chouse flickurd meself Whereby I paradventerd before to tell your noble onnur my poor thofts on this here Mr Clifton match marriage which is all against the grain And this I do hope your ever onnurable onnur will pry into and see with your own eyes
Whereof I have a bin ruminatin of many thinks lately and of the ups and downs of life so that I should sing oh be joyfool if as your onnur would but turn them in your thofts as I have done Whereby my son has a bin down with me and I do find that sooth and trooth he be verily a son of my own begettin and thof I say it a man may be proud of sitch a son and as your ever gracious
onnur wus most mercifoolly pleased to sifflicate a wus born a gentleman for a has his head fool and fool of fine notions
Whereby if your onnurable onnur will but a be pleased to lend a mercifool ear to me why mayhap I should a be willin to come down with the kole to your onnurs hearts content Why not For I have a talked matters over with my son and a has said a many glorious thinks of your onnur and of sweet mercifool missee all a witch a learned from me For why He is my own son and of the issue of my loins and I did always givn the best of advice A had his whole feedin and breedin from me and as a wus always fain to be a man of learnin
why I taught him his letters meself whereof I have now reason to be proud of n
But that is not whereof of a what I wus a goin to think to say I wus about to paradventer to proposal to your onnur that if thinks might behappen to come to pass in the manner of mercifool lovin kindness and gracious condysension the wherewithalls should a be forth cummin to the tune of fifty thousand pounds that is with the betokenin of all proper securities of parchments and deeds and doosoors to be first signed and stipilated as heretofore have bin on like future occasions Take me ritely your onnur I mean for the twenty thousand pounds For why
I meself will be so all bountifool as to come down on the nail head with thirty thousand for my son And then we shall see who will be a better gentleman as your onnurable onnur wus most graciously pleased to kappaishus him
Whereby Wenbourne Hill would then be in all its glory and mayhap your ever gracious onnur might in sitch a case again go on with your improofments And who can say but the wildurness might a begin to flourish So that if your noble onnur will but think of that why thinks may behappen to begin to take a new turn and there may be mirth and merry days again at Wenbourne Hill For I do know in your
heart your onnur do lamentation the loss of all your fine taste and elegunt ideers and plans and alterations all of a witch have a bin so many years a carryin on and a compassin at Wenbourne Hill
Whereof I umbelly condysend to intreat your noble onnur would a give these thinks a thinkin For why The lawyers might a then be stoptt and a spoke might a behappen to be put in the wheel of the foreclosures witch if not as your noble onnur already knows may not a turn out to be altogether quite so agreeable unless your ever gracious and onnurable onnur should be so all mercifool as to rite to me whereof I could then give them
the whys and the wherefores and all thinks would be smooth and smilin
I besiege your most noble onnur to ponderate mercifooly of these thinks and of a dockin of the entail and of a settin of the deeds of the lawyers to work Whereby every think may in sitch a case be made safe and secure▪ not forgettin Wenbourne Hill and the willdurness and mayhap the hermuttidge and the grotto For why your noble onnur Where one fifty thousand pound be a forth cummin from another may a behappen to be found But thats a nether here nor there a savin and exceptin the death and mortality of man and the resurrection of the just
and of the repentin sinner in all grace and glory
And so I most umbelly remain with the thanks givin of goodness your onnurs most faithfool umbel sarvent everlastin to command
ABIMELECH HENLEY
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London GrosvenorStreet
NO I will not attempt to console my Louisa for I will not suppose even at the present moment that she yields to grief or is in need of consolation She will not repine at what is not to be remedied nor debilitate her mind by dwelling
on her own causes of discontent instead of awakening it to the numerous sources of happiness which by increasing the happiness of others incite it to activity These are truths too deeply engraven on the heart of Louisa to be forgotten and it is scarcely necessary to revive them even at this serious moment
With respect to myself my friend shall be my judge my whole conduct shall be submitted to her with an injunction not to indulge any partialities in my favour but to censure advise and instruct me whenever she finds opportunity Such Louisa has been our intercourse and we have mutual reason to congratulate each other on its effects
I have just had a conversation with
Sir Arthur He has received a letter from Abimelech which he shewed me Of all the proofs Frank has yet given of energy this relative to his father is perhaps the strongest You know the character of Abimelech Could you think it possible He is willing not only to raise twenty thousand pounds for Sir Arthur but to pay down thirty more for his son He begins to be vain of this son and has even some slight perception that there may be other good qualities beside that of getting and hoarding money
But his cunning is still predominant Having conceived the possibility of this marriage the accomplishment of it is now become his ruling passion and has for a moment subjected avarice itself
He neglects no motive which he thinks may influence Sir Arthur not even threatening though his language is couched in all the art of apparent kindness and adulation His letter however has produced its effect on my father as you will perceive by the following dialogue which was begun by Sir Arthur
What think you of this proposal Anna
I ought rather to ask what are your thoughts on the subject sir
I can scarcely tell I own it does not seem to me quite so unreasonable as I should once have supposed it that is as far as relates to me But if you should have conceived any partiality for Mr Clifton I should then—
Excuse me sir for interrupting you but Mr Clifton is at present wholly out of the question Were it in my power which I fear it is not to do him any service I should be as desirous of doing it now as ever but I can never more think of him as a husband
Are you so very determined
I am and I hope sir my determination is not offensive to you
I cannot say at present that it is for not to mention that I think very well of young Mr Henley I own the affair of the anonymous letter was a very improper and strange proceeding Your aunt Wenbourne and Lord FitzAllen indeed seem to doubt it but according to the account which you and Mr Henley
give I think they have no foundation for their doubts
The behaviour of Mr Clifton without the letter would have been quite sufficient to have fixed my determination
What behaviour
The proof he gave of deceit and depravity of principle by the manner in which he endeavoured to seduce me
When was that
The very day on which Frank arrived
Endeavoured to seduce you
Yes
Are you certain of the truth of what you say
He proceeded too far and explained himself too openly for me to be mistaken
Seduce you—Then you have entirely given up all thoughts of him
All thoughts of marrying him I have most certainly
And what is your opinion of Mr Henley
What can it be sir Are there two opinions concerning him And if I were blind to his virtues for whose safety he has been so often and so ardently active who should do him justice
I own Anna I have often thought you had some love for him and I am tempted to think so still
Love in the sense in which you understand it I have carefully suppressed because till now I supposed it incompatible with duty and virtue but I acknowledge I begin to doubt and even
to suppose that his view of the subject has been more rational and true than mine and he thinks it is our duty to form a union for which he owns he has an ardent wish
Yes he has honestly told me all that passed between you and his sincerity pleased me—But every branch of our family would certainly be against such a match
I suppose so
The world too would consider me as having dishonoured myself were I to consent
I believe it would
And would exclaim against the bad example—What ought to be done
My opinion has been that the world would have cause to make this complaint
but I now think or rather imagine myself convinced that I was in an error It appears evident to my mind at present that we ought to consider whether an action be in itself good or bad just or unjust and totally to disregard both our own prejudices and the prejudices of the world Were I to pay false homage to wealth and rank because the world tells me it is right that I should do so and to neglect genius and virtue which my judgment tells me would be an odious wrong I should find but little satisfaction in the applause of the world opposed to selfcondemnation
Mr Henley is a very good young man a very good young man indeed and I believe I should even be willing to
think of him for a son if it should not be opposed by the other branches of the family
But that it surely will
I am afraid so—Lord FitzAllen is half reconciled to us again and I would avoid breaking with him if possible Your aunt has a good opinion of Mr Henley
But a better of Mr Clifton
Yes so I suppose I must talk to Edward Mr Henley has been his friend
But Edward does not understand friendship When he says friend he means acquaintance and he finds him the most agreeable acquaintance who tells him least truth which certainly is not Mr Henley I have observed him
lately to be rather fond of the company of Mr Clifton whom he thinks a better companion
I own Mr Henley is very obstinate in his opinions
If his opinions be true would you not have him persist in the truth
But why should he be more certain that what he says is truth than other people
Because he has examined with more industry and caution has a stronger mind and a greater love of enquiry He does not endeavour to make his principles accord with his practice but regulates his practice by his principles
But still I ask what proof he has of being more in the right than other people
I wonder sir that you can put such a question He has surely given both you and me sufficient proofs of superiority and though you should doubt the arguments you cannot doubt the facts
I own he is a very extraordinary young gentleman
Ah sir The word gentleman shews the bent of your thoughts Can you not perceive it is a word without a meaning Or if it have a meaning that he who is the best man is the most a gentleman
I know your notions child and mine differ a little on these matters However I do not think you quite so much in the wrong as I used to do and perhaps there is something in what you say Many men of low fortunes have made their way to the highest honours and
for what I know he may do the same
He may and certainly will deserve the highest respect but if you flatter yourself sir that he will seek or accept the titles and distinctions which men have invented to impose on each others folly and obtain their own artful purposes I ought to warn you that you will be mistaken His whole life will be devoted to the discovery and spreading of truth and individual acts of benevolence excepted his wealth should he acquire any will all be dedicated to that sole object
I am afraid these are strange whims Anna
I hope yet to shew you sir they are
noble duties which it is the excess of guilt to neglect
It puzzles me to conceive by what means his father could have become so rich
He has all his life been rapacious after money His faculties are strong but perverted What would have been wisdom is degenerated into cunning He has made himself acquainted with usurers and they have made him acquainted with spendthrifts He has traded in annuities and profited by the eagerness of youth to enjoy and since I must be sincere he has encouraged you sir to pursue plans of expence with a view solely to his own profit
Well well should this marriage
take place it will all return into the family
That should be no motive sir with either you or me
I do not know that You understand your own reasons and I mine and if they should but answer the same end there will be no harm
I was going to reply but Sir Arthur left me being unwilling to hear arguments which he took it for granted he should not understand
Frank came in soon after and I repeated to him what had been said Louisa I must tell you the truth and the whole truth Since I have begun to imagine I might indulge my thoughts in dwelling on▪his exalted qualities and uncommon
virtues my affection for them has greatly increased and they never appeared to me more lovely than in the struggles and checks which his joy received at the hope of our union by the recollection of the loss of Mr Clifton He like me is astonished at the powers of your brothers mind and at their perversion and he fears that this attempt having failed will but serve to render that perversion more obdurate nay perhaps more active He seems even to dread lest I am not secure which his desire to guard and caution me against would not suffer him to repress or conceal His tenderness and ecstasy and indeed Louisa they were both very strong were mingled with regret equally
vivid and Mr Clifton Mr Clifton repeatedly burst from him
While I was relating what had passed between me and Sir Arthur to Frank and now again since I have been writing it to you I accused myself of coldness and of shrinking from or rather of half delivering the truth lest Sir Arthur should think me a forward girl or lest I should think myself capable of too sudden a change But of the degree of that change do you my friend judge I have at all times endeavoured to shew you my naked heart and often have violently struggled against every disguise I never concealed from myself that I thought more highly of Frank Henley than of Mr Clifton but I imagined principle taught me to prefer what principle
now warns me to shun I am more and more convinced of the error of marrying a bad man in order to make him good I was not entirely ignorant of this before and therefore flattered myself the good might be effected previous to marriage I forgot when passion has a purpose to obtain how artful it is in concealment
I have another quarrel with myself for having been so desirous of proving to my own conviction that the worlds prejudices and the prejudices of my family ought to be respected while that opinion accorded with my practice and of being now so equally alert to prove the reverse Such are the deceptions which the mind puts upon itself For indeed I have been very desirous of acting with
sincerity in both instances I can only say that I feel more certain at present for before I had doubts and now I have none If you suspect me to be influenced by inclination tell me so without reserve
All good be with my friend May she profit by my mistakes
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
RoseBank
YOU will perceive Fairfax I have changed the scene and am now in the country I have a long narrative to detail and am sitting in an old hall with gloom and leisure enough to make it as tedious and as dull as you could wish My poor mother has taken her last
leave of us and lies now a corpse in the room under me I could be melancholy or mad or I know not what—But tis no matter—She brought me here unasked to make the journey of this world and now I am obliged to jog on Not that I think I should much care if it were shortened nor how soon except that I would live to have my revenge and that I will have little troubling myself though the next minute were certain to be my last It rankles at my heart and lies there corroding biting festering night and day
I have quarrelled with my sister and I am sure shall never forgive her nor will she forgive me so that we shall easily balance our accounts This Anna St Ives is her supreme favourite But
no wonder—No wonder—It would be strange if she were not Still to be so ready to give up a brother and write me such a letter as she did on the death of my mother If I do not make her repent it Heaven renounce me
But I consider the whole world as my enemies at this moment you perhaps Fairfax excepted I say perhaps for I do not know how soon you may turn upon and yelp at me with the rest
Forgive me Fairfax I am all venom all viper and cannot forbear to hiss even at my friend But let my enemies beware They shall find I can sting—These cursed gnawings of heart will not let me begin my story
I told you I was determined to deny the anonymous letter I have been very industrious with uncle FitzAllen and aunt Wenbourne and have been equally careful to titilate the vanity of the coxcomb Edward who is highly flattered with the attention I have paid him and will I am certain become my warm partisan
They had all heard the story but were all ready enough to gape and swallow my tale which considering it was wholly invention was not ill composed I begin to hate myself to hate her to hate the whole world for being obliged to submit to such a damned expedient But I will not recede I will
have my revenge Were the devil himself waiting to devour me I would on or were he engaged against me I would overreach him
I concerted my measures and learning that this lad of mine who wrote the letter for me was down at WenbourneHill I sent my man to inveigle him to come to me at an inn where I purposely stopped in my way to RoseBank How durst they suborn my servant—But— I will stab and not curse
My valet executed his commission and prevailed on the lad to come though with some difficulty for he is a stubborn dog and had not the valet followed my directions and told him it was to do his old master a service he would have been foiled But I took
him up at Paris destitute and in some danger of starving which he has not forgotten
This Henley however is a greater favourite with him than I am as I soon found by his discourse
I began by sounding him to try if it were possible to prevail on him to assert he had written the letter at the instigation of Henley instead of me but I soon found it was in vain and durst not proceed to let him see my drift
I then persuaded him that they had totally mistaken my purpose in writing the letter that I had done it with a very friendly design that I had myself a very great esteem for Henley and that I meant nothing but good to Anna but that there were some reasons which I
could not explain to him that had occasioned me to write the letter
As my next purpose after that of making him an evidence in my favour was to send him entirely out of the way if I failed in the first attempt I began to remind him of the condition in which I had found him in Paris which he was ready enough to acknowledge and seemed indeed afraid of acting ungratefully I prompted and strengthened his fears and at last told him that since I found he was a good lad and meant well though he was mistaken and had done me an injury I would give him an opportunity of shewing his gratitude
I then pretended that I had a packet of the utmost consequence to be delivered to my friend in Paris meaning
you Fairfax which I durst not trust to any but a sure hand and as I knew him to be an honest lad I expected he would not refuse to set off with it immediately It was an affair almost of life and death And that I might impress his mind with ideas which would associate and beget suitable images I began to talk of the decease of my mother of my own affliction at the misunderstanding with Anna of my very great friendship for Henley and of the fatal consequences that would attend the miscarriage of the packet
Still I found him reluctant He seemed half to suspect me and yet I made a very clever tale of it He talked of Henley and his aunt and he had likewise a dread of Paris His aunt I find has
been maintained by Henley she being lame and disabled and as sending him out of the way was a preliminary step absolutely necessary I gave him a thirty pound banknote desired him to go to his aunt and give her ten pounds and to keep the rest to secure him against any accidents of which he seemed afraid in a strange country with a promise that he should have as much more if he performed his commission faithfully on his return
I further enquired the direction of the aunt telling him I would undertake to provide for her and so I must for she too must be sent out of the way
At last by repeating my professions and again reminding him of my taking him up at Paris I was successful
Though I had more trouble in gaining the compliance of this lout than would have been sufficient were I prime minister and did I bribe with any thing like the same comparative liberality to gain ten worthy members of parliament though five knights of the shire had been of the number
He wanted to return to WenbourneHill for his necessaries and trifling property and this reminded me not only of the danger of doing that but of his passing through London Accordingly I told him to keep the ten pounds meant for his aunt to buy himself what things he wanted which I promised to replace to her and informed him I now recollected that he must take the nearest road to Dover which I pretended lay through
Guildford Bletchingly and Tunbridge leaving London on the left
The importance hurry and command I assumed did not give him time to reflect and the injunctions I gave were such as I do not imagine he would have disobeyed But for my own security pretending a fear that he might mistake his way I sent my valet with him privately ordering the valet not to part till he saw him safe on board the packetboat
And now Fairfax it is not impossible but the wise uncle who has an excellent scent at discovery and no small opinion of his own acuteness may find out that Henley himself was the forger of this letter that it was a collusion between him and the lad that he has himself removed
moved both the lad and the aunt and that his charity is a farce I say such an event is possible You may be sure that the idea shall be wholly his own and that I will allow him all the just praise which he will graciously bestow upon his penetration
My directions to the lad w ere to bring the packet immediately to you which packet you will find to be blank paper for I had no time for any thing more except a short note of which the following is a copy
AN event which I have not leisure to relate occasions me to send you this by a special messenger You will most probably receive a letter express
from me before he arrives but if not detain him carefully Hint not a word of the matter but make a pretext of urgent business concerning me for the issue of which he must wait At all events do not let him escape till you hear further from
C CLIFTON
I was obliged to pretend extreme hurry to the lad but I gave my valet private instructions to take him round and use as much delay as he conveniently could Meanwhile I will send the letter I am now writing away express that you may be fully prepared for this is a point of infinite consequence If you are not in Paris the express is to
follow you and you will be kind enough to take measures that the lad may follow the express He is ordered to wait your commands which I told him might possibly detain him a month or even more though it might happen that the business would be transacted in a week
Not that I can hope the real business can now possibly be so soon finished
You will take care to make your account agree with mine and circumstances oblige me to require of you Fairfax to condescend to get the lads favour and not make his stay irksome You may command me to ten times this amount as you know
This is a melancholy scene and a
gloomy house and a dismal country and I myself am fretful and moody and mad and miserable I shall soon get into action and then it will wear off
I will have her ay by the infernals will I And on my own terms I know she is rejoicing now in her Henley Eternal curses bite him But I will haunt her I will appear to her in her dreams and her waking hours shall not want a glimpse of me I know she hates me So be it If she did not I could not so readily digest my vengeance But I know she does And she shall have better cause I never yet submitted to be thus baffled She is preparing an imaginary banquet and I
will be there a real guest I will meet her at Philippi
I wish I were away from this place I wish I were in my mothers coffin
I hate to meet this insolent sister of mine We have had a battle and I was in such a frantic rage that I could neither find ideas nor words while she was cool cutting insolent impudent— I never in my life had so strong an inclination to wring a husseys neck round
But I will get away as fast as I can I am resolved however to turn her out of the house first She shall feel me too before I have done Brother with her is no tie nor shall sister be to me Her mother has made but a small provision
for her and has recommended her to my mercy She had better have taught her a little humility—
Plagues and pestilence Why do I worry myself about her I have quite causes enough of distraction without that I must not turn her out of doors neither now I remember If I did she would fly to her friend and would make her if possible as great a fury as herself
Why do I say would make Do I not know that I am her abhorrence I loved her Fairfax better than ever I loved woman and would have loved her more have loved her entirely infinitely heart and soul if she had not wronged me From the first I was overlooked by her catechised reprimanded
treated like a poor ignoramus while her Henley— If I write any more I shall go mad—Dash through the window or do some desperate act—
C CLIFTON
SIR ARTHUR ST IVES TO ABIMELECH HENLEY
London Grosvenor Street
MR HENLEY
SIR I have received your letter which I must acknowledge is far more satisfactory and in a more proper style than your last at which I cannot but own I was exceedingly surprised
With respect to your son I must say
that he is a young gentleman of very great merit and though a marriage into the family of St Ives is a thing that he certainly has no right to expect yet I cannot deny that your proposal deserves some consideration inasmuch as you now come forward like a man and have likewise a recollection of propriety
Neither do I forget good sir what you have hinted concerning WenbourneHill which is far from disagreeable to me And though there are many impediments for which I cannot altogether answer just at present yet I think it very probable that this affair should end in something like the manner you desire I accordingly expect Mr Henley you
will have the kindness to stop proceedings relative to the foreclosures
In return for which I assure you on my honour I will do every thing that becomes a gentleman to bring the affair to a proper conclusion And as I have a very great respect for your son and think very highly of his parts and learning and all that I find when things come to be considered that he perhaps may make my daughter more happy and the match may have other greater conveniences than perhaps one that might seem to the other branches of my family more suitable
But I know that for the present it will be opposed by Lord FitzAllen and though I do not think proper to
be governed by him or any man yet I could rather wish not to come to an open rupture with so near a relation
It will perhaps be thought derogatory by some other branches of the family But my daughter has a very high opinion of the good qualities of your son and she reminds me continually that he has done us many signal services which I assure you Mr Henley I am very willing to remember
When things shall be in a proper train I imagine it will be our best way of proceeding to pay off all mortgages on WenbourneHill together with the sum for the docking of the entail to my son Edward and
to settle the estate in reversion on our children and their issue my rental being made subject to the payment of legal interest to your son for the fifty thousand pounds But we will consider further on these things when matters are ripe
In the mean time be pleased to send me up one thousand pounds for present current expences which you will place to account And now I hope good sir we shall from this time be upon proper terms in expectation of which I remain with all friendly intentions
A ST IVES
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London GrosvenorStreet
OH that I could write to my Louisa as formerly with flattering and generous hopes in favour of a brother Would it were possible I am already weary of accusation though I fear this is but its beginning I cannot help it but I have strong apprehensions Not
that I will be the slave of fear or sink before danger should it happen to come
The lad that copied the anonymous letter has left WenbourneHill Is run away No one knows whither He went the very day on which your brother left London to be present with you at Mrs Cliftons funeral and Clifton now denies with pretended indignation having had any knowledge whatever of this letter—Oh how audacious is he in error Had the same energy but a worthy object how excellent would be its effects
It is a strange circumstance And what is more strange and indeed alarming Frank has been to enquire for the lads aunt and she is gone No one
can tell what is become of her except that she went away in a hackneycoach after having as the people suppose received a present because she discharged all her little debts contracted during the absence of Frank and bought herself some necessaries
What can this sudden and unaccountable removal of these two people mean They had both apparently the strongest motives to the contrary and Frank has a very good opinion of the lad and not a bad one of the aunt
This is not all We were yesterday invited to dine with Lord FitzAllen that is I and Sir Arthur not Frank Henley as you will suppose I had a dislike to the visit though I did not
suspect it would have been half so disagreeable My brother and my aunt Wenbourne were likewise invited we found them there
Ever since the scene with Mr Clifton I have been constantly denied to him and positively refused all his applications for an interview conceiving it to be just not to let him imagine there was any doubt on my mind relative to his proceedings and their motives We had scarcely sat down to table before he came in as if by accident This was a subterfuge To what will not error and the abandonment of the passions submit
After apologies for dropping in and disturbing so much good company and a repetition of—I am very glad to see
you sir you do my table honour and other like marked compliments from Lord FitzAllen Clifton seated himself and endeavoured to assume his former gaiety and humour But it could not be—His heart was too ill at ease His eye was continually glancing toward me and there as often met that steady regard which he knew not how to support and by which he was as continually disconcerted I did not affect to frown and to smile would have been guilt I put no reproof into my look except the openeyed sobriety of fortitude springing from a consciousness of right But this was insupportable He talked fast for he wanted to talk away his sensations as well as to convince his observers that he was quite at his ease I know not
how far he was successful for they laughed as much when he failed or more perhaps than they would have done had his wit preserved its usual brilliancy His manner told them he intended to be jocular and that was their cue to join chorus
Lord FitzAllen was very marked in his attentions to him which were returned with no less ardour Clifton indeed evidently laid himself out to please the whole table but me least because with me he had least hope and because he found his efforts produced no alteration in that uniform seriousness on which I had determined
As soon as the dessert was served up the servants withdrew and not one of them afterward came in till rung for
which I imagine had been preconcerted Looks then became more grave and the conversation soon dwindled into silence At last Lord FitzAllen after various hems and efforts for he has some fear of me or rather of what he supposes the derogatory sufferance of contradiction addressed himself to me
I am sorry to hear niece there is a misunderstanding between you and Mr Clifton and as you happen now to be both together I think it is a proper opportunity for explanation You know Miss St Ives that an alliance with the family of Clifton has always met my approbation and I suppose you will not deny me the favour of listening with patience—Why dont you speak niece
You desired me to listen sir and I am silent—Let Mr Clifton proceed
Clifton after some stammering hesitation began—I know madam you have been prejudiced against me and have been told very strange things very unaccountable things I cannot tell what answer to make till I know perfectly of what I am accused All I request is to be suffered to face my accusers and let Lord FitzAllen or Sir Arthur or this good lady My aunt Wenbourne or your brother nay or yourself though you think so ill of me be my judge I am told something of an anonymous letter I know not very well what but if any good evidence can be brought of my having written or caused to be written or had any concern whatever in
the writing of such a letter I solemnly pledge myself to renounce the blessing I so ardently seek without a murmur
Lord FitzAllen exclaimed nothing could be more gentlemanlike My aunt Wenbourne owned it was a very proper proposal Edward thought there could be no objection to it Sir Arthur was silent
His insidious appeal to justice and being brought face to face with his accusers revived the full picture of the flight of the lad the removal of the aunt and the whole chain of craft and falsehood connected with these circumstances It was with difficulty I repressed feelings that were struggling into indignation—I addressed myself to Mr Clifton
Then sir you coolly and deliberately deny all knowledge of the letter in question
I have told you madam that I will suffer Lord FitzAllen yourself any person to pass sentence after having examined witnesses
Answer me in an open direct manner Mr Clifton without ambiguity Were you not the author of that letter
I am sorry madam to see you so desirous to find me guilty and I would even criminate myself to give you pleasure but that I know I must then neither hope for your favour nor the countenance of this good company I assure you Lord FitzAllen I assure you Sir Arthur and you madam and all upon
my honour I am incapable of what is attributed to me
Do not appeal to my uncle and aunt Mr Clifton but turn this way Let your eyes be fixed here Listen while I read the letter and then without once shrinking from yourself or me repeat as you have done though in an equivocal manner upon your honour you are not the author
I took the letter from my pocket and began to read When I came to the following passage I again repeated—Look at me Mr Clifton—
She will never have the man they mean for her I can assure you of that and what is more he will never have her
I proceeded to the end and then added—Once more Mr Clifton look at
me and repeat—Upon my honour I was not the inventor and author of those words
Louifa— He did look— I hope I never shall see man look so again—He stared and forced his eyes to do their office and repeated—
Upon my honour I was not the inventor and author of those words
—He stabbed me to the heart Louisa—Can he do this—Then what can he not do He even felt a complacency at the victory he had obtained and turning round to Lord FitzAllen and the company again repeated—
Upon my honour I am not the inventor and author of those words
Lord FitzAllen almost crowed with exultation I am mistaken niece said
he if you do not find there are other people who can write anonymous letters people of no honour upstarts mongrels mushrooms low contemptible fellows that would fully the mouth of a FitzAllen to mention
The tone of this lordly uncle was so high Louisa and his passions so arrogant loud and obstinate that it was with difficulty I could recover the fortitude requisite to assert truth and put falsehood to the blush I again turned to my opponent
Mr Clifton I feel at present you are a dangerous man But I do not fear you Observe sir I do not fear you—I turned to my uncle Sir Mr Clifton caused this letter to be written But if there were no such letter in existence I
have another proof stronger more undeniable of which I imagine you will not doubt when I inform you that no third person was concerned It was addressed to myself It was a strenuous bold unprincipled effort to seduce me Let the gentleman again look me in the face and tell me I am guilty of falsehood
I spoke with firmness and Lord FitzAllens features relaxed and his eye began to enquire with pain and apprehension His great fear was of being convicted of want of penetration Clifton perceived the feelings of the company turn upon him with suspicion but his art must I add his hypocrisy did not fail him He transformed the confusion he felt into a look of contrition and
with as much ardour as if it had been real replied—
It is that fatal error which has ruined me madam in your good opinion and has occasioned you to credit every accusation against me however improbable I confess my guilt Not guilt of heart madam for honour be my witness my views were as pure as the words in which they were uttered I was at that time dependant on the will of a mother whom I loved and whose memory I revere My passions were impatient and I wished to remove impediments to my happiness which now no longer exist I do not pretend to palliate what is unpardonable and what I myself condemn as severely as you do except that I abjure all dishónourable intentions and
meant as I said to be your husband The strongest proof I can give that this was my meaning I now offer in the presence of this noble and good company I require no conditions I ask for no fortune except yourself which is the only blessing I covet in this life I will joyfully attend you to the altar whenever you and your worthy relations shall consent next week tomorrow today this moment and should think myself the most favoured the most happy man on earth
The offer is the offer of a gentleman Sir Arthur said Lord FitzAllen If Mr Clifton had been guilty of any indecorum niece Turning to me you could not require more honourable amends This is acting with that dignity
which characterizes a man of family Mrs Wenbourne and as it is impossible for Miss St Ives to see it in any other point of view here the affair will naturally end and there is no more to be said
I immediately answered—If sir by the affair ending here you understand any further intercourse between me and Mr Clifton I must not suffer you to continue in such an error We are and ever must remain separate Habit and education have made us two such different beings that it would be the excess of folly to suppose marriage could make us one
Miss St Ives—My uncle collected all his ideas of rank and grandeur Miss St Ives you must do me the honour to
consider me as the head of our family and suffer me to remind you of the respect and obedience which are due to that head The proposal now made you I approve It is made by a man of family and I must take the liberty to lay my injunctions upon you to listen to it in a decorous and proper manner
I answered—I am sorry sir that our ideas of propriety are so very opposite But whether my judgment be right or wrong as I am the person to be married to Mr Clifton and not your Lordship my judgment as well as yours must and ought to be consulted
Lord FitzAllen could scarcely restrain his anger within the bounds of his own decorum He burst into exclamations—Exceedingly well miss—Very
proper behaviour to a person of my rank and your uncle—You hear Sir Arthur—You hear Mrs Wenbourne You all hear—But your motives and inclinations are known miss I am sorry that it would dishonour the tongue of FitzAllen to repeat them and I cannot help telling you Sir Arthur that you have been exceedingly to blame to admit such a fellow to any familiarity with a woman of rank and my niece a fellow better entitled to be her footman than her—I will not permit the word to pass my lips
I felt the cowardice of suffering worth and virtue to be insulted without a defender from the fear that I myself should be involved in the insult and replied—
The gentleman sir to whom you have twice alluded in terms of so much contempt were he present would smile at your mistake But there are more people at this table than myself who have been witnesses how little he deserves to be spoken of in the language of opprobrium
Mr Clifton appeared eager to be the first to acknowledge Mr Henley was a very worthy person Edward muttered something to the same tune and Sir Arthur seemed very willing to have spoken out but wanted the courage He began at Turnham Green but could get no further Lord FitzAllen answered—
What tell you me of TurnhamGreen Sir Arthur I was stopped once myself by a highwayman and my footman
fired at him and sent him packing but I did not for that reason come home and marry my footman to my daughter
The full image of Frank and his virtues pervaded my mind my heart swelled my thoughts burst from my lips and I exclaimed—Oh sir that you had a thousand daughters and that each of them were worthy of such a footman for a husband
Had you beheld this uncle of mine Louisa—The daughters of the peer FitzAllen married to footmen The insult was almost agony The only antidote to the pain which his countenance excited was the absurdity and ridicule of the prejudice But I perceived how vain it was to expect that in this company
the voice of justice should be heard and I rose My aunt rose at the same time to retire with me but recollecting myself I turned and thus addressed Lord FitzAllen and Mr Clifton alternately
That I may not be liable to any just blame from your lordship or you sir for want of being explicit you must permit me to repeat—I never will again admit of the addresses of Mr Clifton I have an abhorrence of the errors in which he is now indulging He himself has told me what a mad and vicious act it would be to marry a husband in whom I could not confide and I never can confide in him My persuasion at this moment of his hypocrisy is such that could I prevail on myself to the debasement
of putting him to the trial by pretending to accept his hand I am convinced he would refuse I read his heart He seeks an opportunity to revenge imaginary injuries for I never did do not nor ever can wish him any thing but good I think I would lay down my life without hesitation to render him all of which his uncommon powers are capable but I perceive the impossibility of its being effected by me and I here ultimately and determinedly renounce all thought of him or of so dangerous an attempt
Mr Clifton eagerly started up and with a momentary softening of countenance a pleading voice and something like the tone of returning virtue exclaimed—Hear me madam—I conjure
you hear me My appeal is to the benevolence the dignity of your heart Remember the virtuous plan you had formed—
The combat in his mind was violent but short Truth made a struggle to gain the mastery and hope raised up a transient prospect of success which was as quickly overclouded by anger and despair and he stopped abruptly At least his voice and features were so impassioned that if these were not his sensations I have no clue to the human heart Perceiving him pause and doubt I replied—
It cannot be Mr Clifton You this moment feel it cannot You have begun a course of fraud and which the whole arrangement of today is only
meant as so much pitiful machinery to effect You are conscious Mr Clifton you are conscious Lord FitzAllen that our meeting was not as you have both pretended accidental And I here call upon you—you Mr Clifton to tell for what purpose or where you have sent the lad who wrote the letter and to what place you have removed his aunt Such an artifice is vile sir And to challenge your accusers to stand forward and with a look such as you assumed to affirm
Upon your honour you were not the inventor and author of the letter
is so much more vile that I shudder for you Your own proceedings have conjured up a train of recollections that speak a concerted plan of perfidy You mean mischief But I once more tell
you sir I do not fear you I will not fear you My fears indeed are strong but they are for yourself Beware The more guilt you have committed the more you will be driven to commit Turn back You are in a dreadful path It is unworthy of you Mr Clifton It is unworthy of you
I instantly withdrew and was followed by Mrs Wenbourne who began to express something like blame of the positive manner in which I had spoken and the high language I had used to Lord FitzAllen but it was too feeble to incite an answer in my then state of mind I requested she would order her carriage and set me down She asked if I would not first pay my respects to my uncle I answered yes when my uncle should be more deserving of respect
She said I was a strange young lady I replied I sincerely hoped there were many young ladies stranger even than I
She took offence at these retorts upon her words and I perceived that though the spirit of my answer was right the manner was wrong and explained and apologised as became me She was appeased and when the carriage came again asked if I would not go with her to take leave I answered I imagined my uncle would be glad to wave the ceremony and as I thought he had acted very improperly curtsying and taking leave would but be practising the customary hypocrisy of our manners which I hoped I should on all occasions have the firmness to oppose
Accordingly my aunt went herself
and his lordship still preserving his dignity pretended to forbid me his presence till I better understood what was due to the relationship and rank in which he stood This my aunt reported and I returned no answer but left her to make her own reflections
Thus ended this painful interview—Tell me what ought I to think What can be the purport of a conduct so very wrong Such a string of falsehoods How different would the behaviour of Mr Clifton have been had not conscious criminality oppressed and chained up his faculties Such persistence in duplicity must have some end in view Could I consent to marriage which is now utterly impossible he has certainly no such meaning If he had he could
not have written he could not have acted as he has done and even less in this last instance since his writing than before for he could not but know that though he could appear this generous man of honour to Lord FitzAllen he must stand detected by me It was not possible he should suppose otherwise
Well Let him mean me all the harm he pleases only let me find some opportunity of convincing him what a depraved unmanly trivial turn his mind has taken and let me but give it a different bent and I will willingly suffer all he shall have the power to inflict I do not find myself Louisa disposed to stand in that dread of baseness and violence which they generally inspire Virtue is not a passive but an active
quality and its fortitude is much more potent than the rash vehemence of vice
Adieu dear Louisa Peace and felicity guard you
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
THANK you Fairfax for your speed and precautions which I must request you not to slacken Do not let the lad escape you his appearance here would be ruin Let but my grand scheme be completed and then I care
not though the legions of hell were to rise and mow and run a tilt at me I would face their whole fury The scene would delight me Let them come all I burn to turn upon and rend them The more desperate the more grateful
I told you Fairfax she hated me I have it now from her own mouth She feels I am become her foe My hand is already upon her My deepest darkest thoughts of vengeance do not exceed her imagination
And yet she fears me not Her words her looks her gestures are all cool firm defiance She is a miracle Fairfax A miracle But I will overmatch her A heroine She would have unhorsed Orlando himself had she
lived in the times of the knights Paladin
I am an insufferable booby an eternal lunatic for having first thought of quarrelling with her But it is too late I might have foreseen the advantages I give a woman like her She openly magnanimously tells me what my intents are and then spurns at them She keeps her anger under indeed but does not repress its energy a proof of the subjection in which she holds her passions She once endeavoured to teach me this art would I but have listened But that is past
I could not have thought it was in woman The poor wailing wateryeyed beings I had before encountered would not suffer me to suppose a female could
possess the high courage of the daring noble mind Never but one short moment did I overtop her nor are there any means but those I then used Inspire her with the dread of offending what she thinks principle and she becomes a coward
But I will rouse I will soar above her will subdue her will have her prostrate in humble submission or perish In the presence of witnesses I feel I cannot succeed but singly face to face passion to passion and being to being distinct and eminent as she stands above all womankind I will yet prove to her she is not the equal of the man Clifton
She herself has even thrown the gauntlet I have had such a scene with
her A public exhibition I cannot relate the manner of it I dare not trust my brain with the full reminiscence
Why did I quarrel with her She meant me well—Tortures—I am a lunatic to tease myself with such recollections This is a damned wrong▪headed ignorant blundering vile world▪ and I cannot see my way in it I should have had no suspicion that it is all this but for her
That Henley shall never have her Ill murder him first Though the bottomless pit were to gape and swallow me he shall not have her The contemptible buzzard Sir Arthur is now completely veered about But in vain It shall not be By hell it shall not
This fellow this Henley must some
how or other be disposed of The contempt of the arrogant peer her uncle will harm him but little for the lord with all his dignity is no match for the plebeian
Neither will his lordship hastily seek another combat with his niece The only advantage I have in so insignificant an ally is that of hereafter making suspicion alight on Henley and not on me for I mean to carry them both off Henley and Anna I know not where or how I shall yet dispose of them but there is no other mode of accomplishing vengeance They must be confined too I care not how desperate the means I will not retract They shall be taught the danger of raising up an enemy like me I will have them at my feet Will
separate them Will glut my revenge and do the deed that shall prevent their ever meeting more except perhaps to reproach each other with the madness of having injured aggravated and defied a Clifton
My whole days are dedicated to this single object I have been riding round the skirts of this shapeless monster of a city on all sides in search of lonely tenantless houses some two of which I mean to provide with inhabitants I have met with more than one that are not ill situated
But I want agents Desperados Hungry and old traders in violence I care not where I go for them have them I will though I seek them in the purlieus of infamy and detestation To
succed by any other means is impossible She will not admit me in the same apartment with herself nor I believe in the same world had she the power to exclude me
I met her indeed at Lord FitzAllens where the scene abovementioned passed but it was a plan concerted with his lordship which she easily detected and publicly reproached him with his duplicity I gloried to hear her for she had not injured him A poor compound of pride and selfishness Incapable of understanding the worth of such a niece But she made him feel his own insignificance
Henley and she are now never asunder I have mentioned the maid Laura to you She tells me they have long
conversations in the morning long walks in the afternoon and at night they have neither of them the power to rise and separate But I will come upon them My spirit at present is haunting them never leaves them girds at and terrifies them at every instant during their amorous dalliance I know it does They cannot get quit of me I am with them weighing them down convulsing them They feel they are in my gripe—Hah The thought is hearts ease
When there is no company and when Sir Arthur is not sitting with them this maid Laura has that honour Whence it appears that even these immaculate souls have some dread of scandal
And who is it inspires that dread It is I They seem to have discovered
that all circumstances all incidents wear a double face and that I am the malignant genius who can make which he pleases the true one—Yes I am with them I send the Incubus that hagrides them in their dreams They gasp and would awake but cannot
Why could she not have bestowed all this affection upon me Why could she not I once thought a woman might have loved me—But it seems I was mistaken—The things that go by the general name of woman might but when I came to woman herself she could not though she tried
Would I were any where but in this infernal gloom It is a detestable country This town is one everlasting fog and its inhabitants are as cloudy as its
skies Every man broods over some solitary scheme of his own avoids human intercourse and hates to communicate the murk of his mind I am in a wilderness I fly the herd and the herd flies me We pass and scowl enmity at each other for I begin to look with abhorrence on the face of man There is not a single gleam of cheerfulness around me The sun has not once shone since the day of my disappointment which was itself thick darkness
Would I could getrid of myself—I am going to take a ride and make a second examination of a large lonely house beyond Knightsbridge It lies to the left and is at a sufficient distance from the road I think it will suit my purpose I must not have far to convey them
and Laura informs me their walks are most frequently directed through HydePark and among the fields at the back of Brompton
I must be as quiet and appear as little myself as possible for which reason I ride without a servant And though I have been industrious in reading advertisements and getting intelligence of empty houses I have not ventured to enquire personally Laura attends them in their walks but she is secure
They must both be seized at the same time and in a manner that shall frustrate all research It will then be concluded they have gone off together He is a powerful fellow a dangerous fellow and I must be well provided He shall never have her Fairfax I would die upon
the wheel hang like a negro and parch alive in the sun ere he should have her
C CLIFTON
P S
All society is become odious to me but chiefly that society which I am obliged to frequent This uncle FitzAllen aunt Wenbourne and brother Edward are three such poor beings and the censures they pass on a woman who is of an order so much above them are so vapid so selfish or so absurd that it is nauseating to sit and listen to them Yet these are the animals I am obliged to court Hypocrisy is a damned trade Fairfax and I will have full vengeance for having been forced upon such a practice The only present relief I have is to make the arrogant peer foam
with the idea of his relationship to a gardeners son This would be an exquisite pleasure but that it is millions of times more maddening to me than to him
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London Grosvenor Street
ABIMELECH is come up to town I am obliged very respectfully to call him Mr Henley when Sir Arthur hears me in compliance to his feelings and he has hinted that hereafter when his name is written it must be tagged with an esquire
The old miser Well Louisa let it be the old gentleman is so eager in pursuit of his project that he can take no rest and is unwilling Sir Arthur should take any He has a prodigious quantity of cunning Whatever he may know of the theory of the passions as a general subject no person certainly knows better how to work upon the passions of Sir Arthur at least no person who will condescend to take such an advantage His discourse is such a continued mixture of WenbourneHill his money mortgages grottos groves the wherewithals and the young gentleman his son that laughter scarcely can hold to hear him Were the thing practicable he would render Frank Henley himself ridiculous
It is pleasant to remark what a check the presence of this favourite son is upon his loquacity He never suspects the possibility of there being a mortal superior to himself at other times whereas he has then a latent consciousness of his own ridicule The effect which the absence of Frank has produced with the favour he is in with me and the resolute manner in which he conquered his father when he last went down to WenbourneHill have made a total change in the old mans behaviour to this formerly neglected but now half adored son Were habits so inveterate capable of being eradicated Frank would yet teach him virtue but the task is too difficult
He is certainly in a most delicious
trance His son to be married to the daughter of his master That master a baronet And the estates of that baronet to be his own as he supposes to all eternity For the avaricious dreams of selfishness are satisfied with nothing less These are joys that swell and enlarge even his narrow heart into something that endeavours to mimic urbanity
Whenever Sir Arthur mentions Lord FitzAllen or the family consent honest Aby in a moment conjures up WenbourneHill a hermitage and a wilderness and for the first day if he found that dose not strong enough to produce its effect foreclosures were added to the mixture Your own heart Louisa will tell you what Franks feelings were at such a mean menace and
though to stop his garrulity entirely was not in the power of man he determined to silence him on that subject But the cunning Abimelech turned even this incident to advantage by taking care to inform Sir Arthur of Franks generosity
Thus Louisa things are at present in a train which some months ago I should indeed very little have expected But such are the energies of virtue How changed at present do all surrounding objects seem To me they were never dark but they were not always pleasant They are now all cheerfulness and perspicacity We have the most charming walks and the most delightful conversations Louisa and on subjects so expansive so sublime— Often do I say—
Why is my friend not with us
Why does she not come and bear her part in discussion She whose mind is so penetrating and whose thoughts are so grand
But we shall meet Days and years of happiness are before us The prospect is rapture Yes Louisa we shall meet and I hope quickly
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
JOIN chorus and rejoice with me Fairfax for I feel something like a transient hilarity of heart I think I am half in a temper to tell my tale as it ought to be told Time was when it would have been pregnant with humour
The very masterdevil that I wanted
has appeared to me and we have signed and consigned ourselves over to the great work of mutual vengeance Be patient and you shall hear the manner of it
Two nights ago I was at the theatre The king was there Garrick played the crowd was great and no places were to be procured During the first act I and two more stood elbowing each other at the door of one of the front boxes the seats of which were all full The person who was next me was hardfavoured had a look of audacious impudence with that mixture of dress which forms the vulgar genteel and spoke the brogue
The act being over the audience rose and my gentleman with the nonchalance
assurance of his character a total disregard of the feelings and convenience of others and an entire complaisance for his own stepped forward into the second seat from the door on which there were previously four people its full compliment But he had noticed they were not all so athletic as himself and was determined to make them sit close
The persons next him observing his redoubtable look hesitated for a moment but at length began to remonstrate They addressed him two or three times without his deigning to appear to hear them till either encouraged by his silence or warmed by vexation they spoke loud enough to call the attention of the people around them
The Hibernian then sat himself down threw his arm over the railing of the box and his body in a careless posture and very coolly answered—
Pray now be asy and dont disturb the good company
A squabble ensued and the Irishman continued to answer them with the utmost contempt In a short time two of them gained courage enough to threaten to turn him out to which he replied—
Oh By the sweet Jasus but I should be glad to see the pretty boy that would dare to lay a little finger upon me
After another wrangle and treating their reasonings and half menaces with the most contemptuous disregard a gentleman from the next box interfered
and observed it certainly was very improper behaviour The Irishman turned round surveyed him from head to foot and answered—
I find you have all got your quarrelling tackle on board to night and so as I must fight somebody and as you mister appear to be the most of a gintleman why I will talk to you when the play is over For which raison sit down and make all yourselves asy
The beginning of the second act and the impatience of the house to hear their favourite soon imposed silence and the Irishman kept his seat
I was so much diverted by the complete impudence of the fellow that though one of the boxkeepers had found me a place I determined to return
and see how this petty brawl was to end Accordingly I took care to be round in time before the curtain dropped till which the hero of it had kept quiet possession of his usurped seat
The moment the audience rose he turned about and with a look which I imagine no man but himself could assume first on this side of him and next on that addressed his opponents with—
Now if any of you are still disordered in the body and want to lose a little blood why follow me
The two persons that sat next to him were both Jews and one of them who appeared to have the most spirit had a knotted crabstick in his hand and insisted that the Irishman should not leave the company till he had first given satisfaction
for the insult he had committed on them all The Hibernian replied—
All Is it all together you mane or one after another Perhaps you dont understand the tools of a gintleman and want to box me Faith and I should have no great objection to that either with any half dozen of you one down and tother come on But you must use no unlawful weapons my sweet fillow
So saying he wrested the Jews crabstick from him laid hold of it at each end and snapped it in two across the railing of the box adding with infinite composure of countenance—
This is an improper plaything for you master Jackey and you might do yourself a damage with it Here is
half a crown for you Take it man and buy yoursilf a genteel bit of rattan to beat the little pug dogs away when they bark after you in the street
Insolent as the fellow was there was no resisting his humour and the laugh was general The vexed Israelite endeavoured to persist and the Irishman drew a dirty letter out of his pocket from the back of which he tore the direction and giving it to the angry Jew said—
If you have any stomach for a good breakfast tomorrow morning I shall be at home and the hot rolls and butter will be ready at ten
He then strode over the seats and went into the lobby where he was followed by the crowd
My curiosity was highly excited and I requested the Jew to let me read his address
Imagine Fairfax my surprise at seeing the name of Mac Fane That is of the gambler and bully who some time ago had been attempting to plunder brother Edward and who had been so successfully opposed by the family knighterrant Henley Among the busy conjectures of my fermenting brain concerning the instruments I might happen to want should things as they have done come to an extremity the supposed qualifications of this hero had more than once passed in review The behaviour to which I had this evening been a witness perfectly confirmed all my former conjectures which I instantly recollected
I therefore determined not to lose sight of him
Before I knew who he was I had been glad to see the squabble continued because it drew out the strong traits of this very eccentric genius but I grew impatient to put an end to it the moment I had made the discovery
The thing was not difficult His character was too desperate and determined not to inspire fear and the humour of his phraseology and brogue made the laugh always on his side The passions of his opponents counteracting each other died away The farce was going to begin and he advised them to
go and not lose full eighteen pennyworth out of their five shillings
Finding the morsel was too hard for
their digestion they took his advice and returned quietly to their seats while he several times traversed the lobby and looked first into one box and then into another to let them see that there he was
My resolution was formed and I soon found an opportunity of falling into conversation with him and as I took care that my tone should answer the intended purpose he presently invited me to adjourn and take what he called a bottle and a bird at the Shakespeare
The proposal exactly suited me and away we went
He called for a private room which I should have done if he had not though with a very different view My appearance made him hope he had caught a
gudgeon He presently began to turn the discourse upon various kinds of gaming Billiards tennis hazard and passdice were each of them mentioned and to encourage him I gave him to understand I knew them all He then talked of cards and asked if I had any objection to take a hand at picquet
just to pass away an hour before supper
I answered none
Accordingly the waiter was rung for and the cards were presently upon the table
He proposed playing for a trifle from one guinea to five not more
becase as why he was tied up from deep play He had lost five thousand pounds within six weeks and they had had a pretty pigeon of him
—
Had you but seen the form and features of this pigeon Fairfax
For which raison he must take care and not be plucked any more It was the misfortune of his timper not to know when to stop and there was not so unlucky a fillow in the three kingdoms He was always the bubble play at what he would and every snapjack knew him to be his mark
Such was the lesson which this fellow had got by rote and had been retailing to all comers for years But I have observed of gamblers that they cannot forbear rehearsing their own cant even in the company of each other and when they are convinced every soul that hears them knows they are lying
I however had my purpose to serve
and we sat down to our game The stakes were five guineas a side According to custom I won the three or four first games and he pretended to curse and fret and again ran over his beadroll of being pigeoned plucked bare bubbled done up and the whole catalogue of like genteel phrases
The first game he won he proposed as luck was perhaps taking a turn in his favour to double the stakes and I indulged him He suffered me to win the following game I say suffered cheating being taken into the account for I am certain that at the fair game I am his master But that is no matter
The three following games were all his own and he then began to repeat
the remainder of his part
By the blissed Jasus he would not believe his own eyes Three games together
The fellow swore with one of the deepest oaths his memory could furnish such a thing had never happened to him before in his whole life
But now that he was in luck he would as soon play for a hundred guineas as for a thirteener
He endeavoured to provoke me to increase the stake and by the supper not coming up I am convinced the waiter and he understood each other and that the signal had been given I refused to play for a greater sum and we continued till he had won fifty guineas he incessantly swearing—
By the blissed crook By the hind leg of the holy lamb
By Saint Peters pretty beard
and by all manner of oaths some of them of the most whimsical and others of the most horrible kind that he had never been a winner so much before in all his life From the first ten guineas that he won to the last it was still the same tune
I then rang the bell and ordered supper thinking the sum sacrificed quite sufficient though not more than enough to serve my purpose
While we were eating he endeavoured by all the arts he knew to excite the passion of gaming in me and he is a tolerable adept But my mind was too intent upon another subject I watched the moment when he was at the height of his hopes which I had purposely encouraged to produce my intended effect
and then asked him if he did not know Captain St Ives
Impudent as the fellow is his countenance for a moment was fixed his mouth open and his eye struggling to get rid of alarm that it might begin its enquiries I followed up my blow by adding—
You won three thousand guineas of him I think Mr Mac Fane which I am told were never paid—
The fellow put his hand into a sidepocket which he had in the body of his coat I instantly suspected he had a small pair of pistols there and my suspicions were afterward confirmed He drew it back having satisfied himself that they were actually forthcoming and then recovered himself so far as to ask—
Pray sir are you acquainted with Captain St Ives—
I am sir answered I—I likewise know Mr Henley
You do sir said the astonished Mac Fane
I do sir I am intimate with Sir Arthur St Ives and he is the son of his gardener a low fellow that acts as the baronets man of all work his steward his overseer and his cashkeeper
This contempt thrown on the character of Henley gave the Irishman some relief By the holy poker said Mac Fane but I always thought he was a spalpeen and no gintleman
I think you have no great cause to like him much sir continued I from the account that I have heard
His choler began to rise and his eyes assumed an uncommon ferocity Like him Sweet Jasus snatch me out of the world if I dont pay off an old score with him yet before I die
I thought as much sir answered I
Sir Replied he again staring with reviving alarm and suspicion—
I continued—To tell you the truth Mr Mac Fane that is the very subject which brought you and I into company this evening I suspected your hate of Henley and to be sincere I hate him too
Had you seen the fellows face brighten Fairfax and after brightening begin to flame you would not have readily forgotten the picture
But I am rather surprised to meet you in public sir added I
What do you mane by that sir
I thought you deemed it prudent to keep out of the way on account of that affair
I felt some gratification in playing thus upon his fears—He now once more put his hand into his sidepocket and pulling out his pistols laid them before him By Jasus sir I dont very well know what you would be at But when I understand the full tote of your questions I shall know how to give an answer
I could not very well digest this oblique menace but to have quarrelled with such a rascal would in every sense have been madness You have a wellmounted pair of pistols there said I Mr Mac Fane Ill bet you the fifty guineas
double or quit I break this china plate at the first shot ten paces distant
By the great grumbler answered he but Ill bet you dont immediately delivering me one pistol and taking up and unlocking the other himself Accordingly I placed the plate against the wall fired and was not far from the centre Upon my honour and soul sir said Mac Fane but I find you are a good shot and I shall be glad to be better acquainted with you
Having convinced him that I could hit a mark as well as himself I returned to the subject of Henley and though I could not bring him to be explicit I learned from him that he was acquainted with Henleys aversion to prosecute but
does not know on what that aversion is founded Beside which he confides in a want of witnesses as I could perceive except that he has some fear of his accomplice Webb a man in whose company this very Mac Fane once attempted to rob Sir Arthur and whom I suspect he would impeach but that it would ruin all his gambling views For he has found means of associating with that whole class of young fools of fortune whose perverted education leads them to take pleasure in the impudence and humour of such a fellow as well as in seeing each other stripped and ruined by turns but who would never admit him as a companion did they know he had been guilty of an act so desperate as that of going on the highway Scarcely any
thing short of this can expel such a fellow from such society
But though he thinks himself secure in consequence of the lenity of Henley he hates him as sincerely as if he were pursuing him to the gallows The loss of the three thousand guineas is one great motive and another is that he felt he was outbraved by Henley whom he could not terrify but who on the contrary terrified him
I found he had even formed a scheme of petty vengeance which was to waylay Henley with some bruising fellows of his acquaintance for he is acquainted with daring villains of all descriptions one of whom was to insult provoke him to fight and beat him while Mac Fane
himself should keep at some distance disguised
It was with some difficulty I could persuade him to desist from this plan and join in projects of my own But at last however he was convinced that to rob him of his mistress and awaken him from all his dreams of imaginary bliss to the torture I am preparing would be more effectual revenge than a paltry beating Not to mention that I firmly believe instead of being beaten he would conquer the best prizefighter they could bring for he is really a powerful and extraordinary fellow
But you will perceive Fairfax I was obliged to inform him of a part of my own views and that I might fix him I
determined to bid high I told him I had Henley and another person to secure and that if he would aid me himself and provide other assistants to act under his directions without seeing or being informed of me I would give him a thousand guineas as soon as all this should be perfectly accomplished And as an earnest of my generosity I put down the fifty guineas saying that the wager I had made with him was not a fair one for that it was fifty guineas to a straw in my favour he had no chance of winning
He was quite satisfied with my offer strengthened as it was by the gratification of his own passions I told him what a puissant hero Henely is and of the necessity of coming upon him by
surprise I told him I had seen a house as before described beyond Knightsbridge which pleased me but that I could not find another near enough in which to secure Henley
The geography of the place I mentioned seemed to start an idea in his mind and he told me if I would meet him in two days at the same tavern he would in the mean time not only make preparations and procure assistants but perhaps bring me further intelligence As the fellows brain seemed busy I did not wish to rob him of the selfsatisfaction of invention and we accordingly parted making the appointment he proposed
Of all existing beings he perhaps
was the only one who could in a country like this become the proper instrument of my revenge And yet Fairfax he is a hateful fellow His language his looks his manners his passions are all hateful Courage excepted there is not a single trait in him but what is abominable He delights in talking of hocking men chalking them and cutting them down Every time his anger rises against any one these are its attendant ideas Such a fellow must come to some tragical end He can never die of old age and scarcely of disease Nothing but the lead and steel in which he delights can end him
So it is and I have no remedy But he shall be to me no more than an implement
with which I will carve the coming banquet
How minute are the chances and events on which we depend A few slight alterations of incident and how different would have been the train of my thoughts She might have been happy with me for I loved her Fairfax I loved her I feel it more and more and were but circumstances a little more savourable I believe I should turn about and take a contrary path
But it cannot be The barrier is insurmountable An adamantine wall reaching to the skies I remember what she said at her proud uncles table—
I have an abhorrence Mr Clifton of the errors in which you are
now indulging
—Abhorrence was the word Fairfax—It has been at my tongues end ever since—And when she talked of my errors she meant me—
I ultimately and determinedly renounce all thought of him
—This was her language I knew before which way her heart went and can I suppose now she has got a fair excuse that she will not profit by it Oh no I am not so ill read as that in the passions But I have said the word—They shall never come together—They never never shall
C CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
I HAVE received your dissuasive epistle Fairfax It found me moody and did not contribute to make me merry To own the truth no ghost need rise to tell me the methods I use are inclined to the violent Can you find me better Nay can you find any
other I care not for consequences I brave them all
Time was that I could have been happy with her Ay and should but for this fiend Henley He sleeps securely Let him sleep on I will soon awaken him
I thought I should have been tortured but by one chief passion and that the love of vengeance would have enveloped me wholly but they are all devouring me by turns I certainly hate her and him I abhor Yet pictures of imaginary happiness that might have been are continually rising and vanishing in gloomy regret He too at the very moment that I could murder him I am obliged to admire
Still he shall not have her Though
death overtake him her and me he shall not have her But what is death A thing to covet not to dread Tis existence only that is hateful—Would that my bones were now mouldering—Why have I brains and nerves and sensibilities—Oh that I were in the poisonous desert where I might gulp mephitic winds and drop dead or in a moment be buried in tornados of burning sand Would that my scull were grinning there and blanching rather than as it is consciously parching scorched by fires itself has kindled
I spent all yesterday with that Irish scoundrel Malignity is his element and mischief his delight I suspect by
his assiduity that he is poor just at present for a more industrious demon black Cocytus does not yield He is already provided with associates and has found another principal agent for the great work It is a strange expedient But these are strange fellows l And yet it is a lucky one superior to any that I had projected
When I mentioned the Knightsbridge road at our first interview Mac Fane recollected that an intimate of his had just set up what was to him a new trade in the neighbourhood that of being the keeper of a madhouse He determined to go and propose the business to him and as the fellow was preparing to advertise for lunatics but had not yet got
a single patient there was a complete opening for such a plan
He proposed taking me to see this intended guardian of maniacs and his house and I ordered a postchaise for that purpose that I might hide myself in one corner of it and not let a living soul detect me with such a companion
As we were going I enquired if this keeper were an Irishman He took offence and retorted—
What did I mane by an Irishman Becase he is a rogue you think he is an Irishman By the holy carpenter you need not come to Ireland for that kind of ware You have a viry pritty breed of rogues of your own But he is not Irish He
is one of your own sulky English bugs
The description was not inapplicable for I think I never beheld a more lowering blackbrowed evileyed fellow since the hour I first saw light He had all the gloom of the most irrascible bulldog but without his generous courage He seemed more proper to make men mad than cure them of madness But he had two excellent qualities for my purpose poverty and a disposition to all ill
I am got into excellent company But I care not I will on All this seems as if it were but the prologue to the tragedy But be it that or be it what it will—I care nothing for myself
and I have little cause to care more for them She never had any mercy on me and least this last interview when I was pleading before her pompous uncle
I have been obliged to hold consultations with these Satanic rascals to concert ways and means The most secure we have been able to devise relative to Henley is to have a straight waistcoat to come upon him suddenly and to encrust him in it before he shall know what we are about This with a gag will make him safe But there must not be less than four fellows and those stout ones Nothing must be left to chance
Three more must be provided for the lady of whom Mac Fane himself proposes
to be one But he means to keep out of sight of Henley till he is in cuftody
I have various preparations yet to make Mac Fane is to go and hire me the empty house tomorrow It is furnished but it must be aired for I would not have her die a paltry catchcold death I would treat her like a gentlewoman in every respect but one and in that I will have as little compassion on her as she has had on me
It might have been otherwise I came to her a generous lover I saw her and was amazed at her beauties captivated by her enchanting manners soothed by her unvaried sweetness But this sweetness she has turned to gall I adored her and was prepared eternally
to adore But injury followed injury in such quick succession that apathy itself called aloud for vengeance
I own it is true what she said at her uncles that I had made a resolution not to marry her But what were my resolutions She herself could not but feel she had the power to break them all But she had not the will Fairfax It rankles there She hates me and what is more damnable she loves another
I must turn my thoughts again to this detested madhouse man and the scenery around it All the avenues must be examined and all the byepaths and open roads that lead toward both houses inspected that Mac Fane and his emissaries
may make no blunder I will if possible keep out of the action but I will be near at hand
I have a secret wish the moment all is over to fly the odious scene for horribly odious it will be but it would have the appearance of cowardice It must end tragically Not even the poor creatures who stand in the place of her natural guardians tame as they are can suffer such an insult Yet which of them dare look me in the face and call himself my enemy And after injuring her shall I hesitate at trampling upon them
I must steel my heart Fairfax when I go to the encounter must recapitulate all my wrongs I have them noted down severally as they occurred I
need but read to rage What do I talk—Read—Can I forget them No night nor day They are my familiars They wake with me sleep with me walk with me ride with me glower with me curse with me—but never smile with me They are become my dearest intimates I cherish and hug them to my heart Their biting is my only pleasure
I cannot forget this keeper He is a foulfaced fellow Has a wry look a dogged dungeon hue of the deepest dusk and progeny of Beelzebub I wonder by whom where and why such fellows are begotten
There are horrid villians in the world Villains by trade that never felt the strong impulse of highminded passion
that could breakfast in an hospital dine in a slaughterhouse and sup in the sanguinary field of battle listening to the groans of the mangled or toss them on the points of forks to smelt in a heap I have heard her talk something of these depraved natures and of the times when they are all to be humanised Can you conjecture when Fairfax Yet she said they should be and I was half inclined to believe her
C CLIFTON
P S
I meant to notice that passage in your letter in which you mention Beaunoir but I forgot it till this moment So you are at last inclined to think Anna St Ives must be something more than you every day meet from
the rapturous description of that rodomontade Count After all I have written your faith wanted the seal of such a lunatic Had you forgotten that the time was when I would have married her And did that say nothing
The Count is preparing for England Let him come I remember one of his crazy phrases and claims was that he would be her champion should ever base knight attempt to do her harm Nor have I forgotten his intended visit received by Henley May the winds set fair and blow him quickly over Should he have any such frolics in his brain we shall not be long in coming to terms
This Mac Fane is incessantly importuning me to play and what is strange
has several times excited the desire in me I took up the dice box after we had been to the madhouse and threw half a dozen casts at hazard but I soon found it was in vain and checked myself I know I have the command of my own temper in that respect
I have been reading over this tedious homily and find it most ineffably dull But what is to be done My gaiety is gone My high spirits are converted into black bile My thoughts are hellebore and deadly nightshade and hilarity is for ever poisoned
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
London GrosvenorStreet
HAVE I been unjust to the brother of my friend Or had my words the power over him to turn him from a guilty purpose—Well rather ay infinitely rather let me be a false accuser than he culpable He seeks me no more offers not to molest me and I
hope has forgotten me at least has seen the error of endeavouring to accomplish a purpose so criminal by means so base I expected storms but a sweet calm has succeeded that seems to portend tranquillity and happiness
With respect to me and Frank our union appears to be hastening to a conclusion Sir Arthur impelled forward by his hopes and fears proceeds though reluctantly to act contrary to the wishes of my arrogant uncle Mrs Wenbourne is dissatisfied but her opposition is feeble for Edward is reconciled to the match having no other motive but the acquisition of a sum of money for his consent to dock the entail and of the manner in which this sum will be squandered
we have already had sufficient proof
I understand Lord FitzAllen affects to credit a report of a very ridiculous though as some would think it of a very injurious nature which is that there was a collusion between Frank Henley and Mac Fane respecting my brothers gambling affair The circumstances necessary to render this probable are so violent as immediately to expose its absurdity and to make it matter of amazement how such an assertion could be invented or circulated
What could be Franks motive—My wise uncle has his answer ready—
That of imposing upon the family in order to marry me
And what Mac Fanes A bribe is a short phrase and soon said
I imagine it to be some dream of my uncles who has an aptitude for this kind of invention and who having once put a few incidents together that seem to agree persuades himself with great facility that the fable he has created is fact Petty calumny like this is wholly incapable of moving Frank Henley
The restless crafty Abimelech has prevailed on Sir Arthur to go down with him to WenbourneHill He well knows how much his own power will be increased by the old habits of Sir Arthur and the ease with which they can be revived by this his interested abettor Not but I am well convinced when once every thing shall be settled and he have
no longer any thing to fear from the opposition of Sir Arthur he will be as little a friend to improving as any of us Various hints which have dropped from him would have proved this to Sir Arthur had he not been blind enough to suppose that he being a baronet honest Aby is bound ever to remain his most obedient slave and steward forgetting the proofs he has received that Abimelech at present is more inclined to command than to obey and that when he parts with money he must have what he calls the whys and the wherefores
His confidence in Frank however is now so entire that he has entrusted the transaction of certain money business to him necessary on the present occasion which he came up purposely to negotiate
himself but which he is now convinced can be done full as prudently and safely by his son But a few months ago Frank tells me he petitioned this father in vain for thirty pounds who now commits thousands to his keeping
Not but it is from a conviction that there is no propensity in Frank to waste one of those guineas of which he is so enamoured Without the least love of money Frank is a rigid economist The father indulges no false wants because it would be expensive the son has none to indulge Habits which in the one are the fruits of avarice in the other are the offspring of wisdom
Abimelech has some confused suspicion that Frank acts from higher motives than himself and such as he does
not understand but still he hopes they are all founded on his own favourite basis the love of hoarding Nor can he very well persuade himself that this love is not the grand mover with all men of sense among whom he now ranks his son high
But ah Louisa how different are the views of this worthy this heavenlygifted son He is anxiously studious to discover how he may apply the wealth that may revert to him most to benefit that society from which it first sprang The best application of riches is one of our frequent themes because it will be one of our first duties The diffusion of knowledge or more properly of truth is the one great good to which wealth genius and existence ought all to be applied
This noble purpose gives birth to felicity which is in itself grand inexhaustible and eternal
How ineffable is the bliss of having discovered a friend like Frank Henley who will not only pursue this best of purposes himself but will through life conduct me in the same path will aid my efforts to promote the great work and by a combination of those powers we happen to possess will add energy to effort and perhaps render it fifty fold more pervading and effective
Husband and wife parent and child are ties which at present claim or rather extort a part of our attention But oh how poor how insignificant are they when compared to the claims of eternal justice which bind man to man in equal
and impartial benevolence over the face of the whole earth and render the wandering Arab who is in need of aid or instruction from me as truly my brother as the one my mother gave me
I seem now but beginning the journey of life and to have found a companion guide and consoler like Frank Henley is surely no common felicity May the fates grant my Louisa just such another
A W ST IVES
P S
You do not think Louisa no I am sure you cannot think that all the ardour I felt for the recovery of a mind like Mr Cliftons is lost Far far otherwise I still hope to see him even more than my fondest reveries have imagined
But I am not the agent or at least this is not the moment or which is still more probable no agent now is wanted His mind has been obliged to enquire and though passion may for a time suppress truth its struggles will be incessant must be so in a mind of such activity and must at last be victorious The grand enemy of truth is the torpid state of error for the beginning of doubt is always the beginning of discovery Let us then continue to love this man of wonderful genius not for what he is but what he shall be
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London GrosvenorStreet
OH Oliver how fair is the prospect before me How fruitful of felicity how abundant in bliss Yes my friend jointly will we labour your most worthy father you I Anna her friend and all the converts we can make to truth
to promote the great end we seek We will form a little band which will daily increase will swell to a multitude ay till it embrace the whole human species
Surely Oliver to be furnished with so many of the means of promulgating universal happiness is no small blessing My feelings are all rapture And yet if I know my heart it is not because I have gained a selfish solitary good but because I live in an age when light begins to appear even in regions that have hitherto been thick darkness and that I myself am so highly fortunate as to be able to contribute to the great the universal cause the progress of truth the extirpation of error and the general perfection of mind I and those dear
friends I have named who are indeed dear because of their ardent and uniform love of virtue
Neither Oliver are all our hopes of Clifton lost Anna thinks and so do I that he has heard too much ever to forget it all or rather that he has a mind so penetrating and so eternally busy that having been once led to enquire it is scarcely in the power of accident wholly to impede the progress of enquiry And should accident be favourable that progress would indeed be rapid By his intercourse with Anna his mind is become impregnated with the seeds of truth and surely the soil is too rich for these seeds not to spring bud and bear a plenteous harvest Ay Oliver fear not It is not the beauty of
the picture that seduces but the laws of necessity which declare the result for which we hope to be inevitable
My present state of happiness meets some slight check from incidental circumstances not in my power to guide My father and Sir Arthur are doing what I believe to be a right thing but from wrong motives The prodigal Edward from a very different avarice of enjoyment is eager to dock the entail The sum he is to receive will soon be squandered and he will then be as eager to imagine himself treated with injustice and will conceive himself left half to perish with want if his accustomed dissipation be not supplied But that it must not be If we can teach him better we will if not he must be left to
repine and accuse and we must patiently suffer the error which we cannot cure
Lord FitzAllen indulges himself in thinking as much ill of me as he can and in speaking all he thinks But this is indeed a trifle I know that the mistakes of his mind situated as he is are incurable and to grieve or feel pain for what cannot be avoided is neither the act of wisdom nor of virtue
F HENLEY
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London Grosvenor Street
I DID not intend to have written again so soon but an incident has occurred which perplexes all reasoning upon it and again engenders doubt It relates to Clifton
I last night attended Anna to CoventGarden playhouse where about eight
oclock I was obliged to leave her having an appointment with some gentlemen in the city relative to my fathers money affairs at that hour which having settled it was agreed I should return in the carriage for Anna before the play was ended to conduct her home Accordingly having met my men of business whom on Friday next I am to meet again to receive eight thousand pounds I drove back to Covent Garden
It was then about ten oclock The coachman stopped at the Piazza I alighted but as I was stepping out of the carriage whom should I see but the gambler and highwayman Mac Fane linked arm in arm with Mr Clifton I was struck with amazement as well I might be A thousand confused doubts
succeeded to each other which I had neither time nor indeed power to unravel
However it seemed to me almost impossible that Mr Clifton should know the man and suffer himself to be seen in public with such a character For certainly a want of selfrespect is not one of the habitual mistakes of Mr Clifton I stopped some little time in this state of perplexity but at last concluded it would be highly culpable in me to leave Mr Clifton ignorant of the character of his acquaintance They had gone toward KingStreet and I hastened after them
I soon came up with them and addressing myself to Mr Clifton said—
Sir
it is incumbent on me to inform you of a particular of which I imagine you are ignorant The name of the man you are in company with is Mac Fane You have heard his history He is the gambler who endeavoured to defraud Captain St Ives of three thousand pounds
I have before acquainted thee Oliver of the ferocious character of this Mac Fane of which I have now had further proofs I had scarcely finished my phrase before he replied with one of his accustomary oaths—
Youre a scoundrel and a liar
—and immediately made a blow at me
Being previously on my guard and watchful of his motions I stepped quickly
back and he missed me and reeled This was in KingStreet where I overtook them
I turned back intending not to notice his insult but he was too much enraged to suffer me to escape unless I had thought proper to run He is a very muscular fellow and confident of his own strength No man could be more determined than I was to avoid so absurd a contest had it been possible but it was not He made several blows at me two or three of which took effect before I returned one of them But finding that I must be obliged to beat him in order to get rid of him and that there was absolutely no other mode I began my task with all necessary determination
The mob collected apace and we
were presently surrounded by passengers waiters chairmen footmen hackneycoachmen and linkboys It was a strange disgusting situation but it did not admit of a remedy This fellow Mac Fane has studied the whole school of assault and is a practised pugilist When I was a boy thou knowest Oliver and before thy worthy father had taught me better I was myself vain of my skill and prowess I was not therefore the novice which he expected to have found Not to mention Oliver that energy of mind if it be real and true energy is itself without any such contemptible knowledge sufficient to overcome the strongest efforts of tyranny
Of this I presently made Mr Mac Fane sensible After the very first onset
he felt himself cowed which increased his rage so much that he endeavoured to have recourse to the most malignant and cruel expedients to obtain victory This obliged me to give him several hard and very dangerous blows which I should otherwise have been cautious of doing and the effects of which he will for some time continue to feel
He fought however with great obstinacy and in a manner which proved how much his ambition was wounded by being conquered The mob as in all such cases chose different sides but much the greatest part was for me They several times saw the malicious and evil intentions of Mac Fane and he once received a blow for them from
one of the assistants which made him more guarded
It is delightful to the philosopher to perceive how even in error justice struggles to shew itself Those rules which are the laws of honour to the mob originate in this noble principle and never is the infraction of justice more dangerous than at such moments when the mind is awakened to full exertion
Still it was a painful and degrading situation Wert thou ever at the mercy of a mob Didst thou ever feel the littleness of thy own faculties when exerted to make a confused multitude act rationally at the very time that thou thyself wert apparently acting like a fool or a madman If so Oliver thou
canst conceive something of the contempt which I felt for myself during this scene Can a general thinkest thou if he be really a fit person to be a general feel otherwise in the heat of battle For I am mistaken if armies of the best disciplined men brought into action do not more or less become a mob And added to this sense of imbecility what must the generals feelings be the next morning when he goes to view the wretched scene of his own making Does he go to view it thinkest thou or does he shun the sight If he go he is a fiend and if he stay away he is worse
The battle being ended and the rage of Mr Mac Fane though perhaps increased obliged to restrain itself there
stood I surrounded by my applauding admirers suffering a thousand ridiculous interrogatories and confined to the spot for the want of clothes My hat and coat I had committed to one person and my watch and purse to another taking it for granted the latter would have been stolen from me if I had not as was actually the fact for my breeches pockets were turned inside out I had rightly concluded that the chances were more favourable in trusting to a person I should select than to the honesty of a mob in the confines of CoventGarden
I was fortunate the whole of my moveables again made their appearance and it gave me great pleasure because I had trusted my purse and watch to a poor fellow The consciousness of his own
honesty was a greater pleasure to him than the recompense he received from me though I thought it my duty to reward him liberally Beside he had seen me ill treated and had conceived an affection for me or more properly for the justice of my cause and he rejoiced exultingly in my victory
I escaped from the shouts and congratulations of my greasy wellmeaning companions as fast as I could and after a further delay of stepping into a coffeehouse to wash and adjust my appearance as well as circumstances would permit I joined Anna who began to be alarmed the play being over and the house almost empty
I saw no more of Clifton But that
affords me no clue If he were before unacquainted with Mac Fane he would hasten from such a companion with vexation and contempt and if the contrary his chagrin at being seen by me would equally induce him to shun us Mind as I have always remarked Oliver and as I have before reasoned with thee relative to him is slow in ridding itself of the habits of prejudice even when prejudice itself seems to have ceased
Tis true that conjectures disadvantageous to Clifton have when Anna and I were considering this incident intruded themselves forcibly upon us but they were only conjectures and I hope ill founded Indeed they are improbable for Clifton could not knowingly
league himself with a man like Mac Fane except for purposes too black or too desperate for even passions so violent as his to entertain
I know mind to be capable of astonishing mistakes nor can I pretend when I recollect the proofs on record to say what are the boundaries of error nor indeed what are the boundaries of probability But I think Clifton could not make himself the associate of Mac Fane
I should pronounce more boldly still but that I cannot conceive how it was possible for a character so legible and gross as that of this gambler to impose for a moment on Coke Clifton acquainted as he is with the world and
accustomed to detect and satirize what he understands to be absurdity I can only say if he be proceeding in error so flagrant and deep as this he is a man much to be feared but more to be pitied
F HENLEY
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
AGAIN and again Fairfax this is an infernal world A vile disgusting despicable besotted ass of a world Existence in it is not worth accepting and the sooner we spurn it from us the better we shall assert our claim to the
dignity and wisdom of which it is destitute
How do I despise the blundering insolent scoundrel with whom I am linked How despicable am I to myself
I last night met the fellow again at the Shakespeare Of all his dirty qualities not one of them is so tormenting as his familiar impudence There is no repressing it except by cutting his throat a business at which he is always alert Nothing delights him so much as to talk of extinguishing men treading out their souls feeding upon their lifetime and other strange revolting phrases all of the same sanguinary sort
Having consulted with him concerning the seizure of Anna and Frank and concluded that the affair should be ended
as speedily as possible I wished to have shaken him off and retired but the thing was impracticable I do not choose that my own carriage should attend me on these expeditions and as it was a rainy night I knew the difficulty of getting a coach I therefore staid an hour till the entertainment should be begun and the Piazza probably more clear
As there is no sitting in his company without some species of gaming for his whole conversation that subject excepted consists of oaths duels and the impudent scoundrels he has put out of the world I took a few throws at hazard with him and as I was very careful to call for fresh dice and to watch his motions I was a winner hazard perhaps
being the fairest of all games if the dice be not foul He ran over his usual litany of being pigeoned and about ten oclock I left play and determined to sally forth being apprehensive of engaging too deeply at the game if I staid longer
The moment we had descended the stairs he impudently laid hold of my arm My blood boiled Fairfax Yet I was obliged to submit
This was not all The precautions I had taken were but a kind of presentiment of the vexation that was preparing for me Just as we quitted the door of the tavern who should bolt upon us but the hated Henley I shook with the broad shame My teeth gnashed curses How willingly could I have
pistoled him Mac Fane every being that eyed me and still more willingly myself
But there was nothing for it but to walk on and seem not to see him He however would not suffer me to depart without a double dose of damnation The same infernal officiousness with which from the first moment he saw me to the last he has been seized came upon him and though I hurried through the Piazza to escape like a perjurer from the pillory he pursued us purposely to inform me I was in company with a rascal and to warn me of my danger
I never can recollect my own situation without an impulse to snatch up the first implement that would deprive me of a consciousness so detestable
The irascible fury of the bully rid me of my tormentor he immediately assaulted Henley and I hastened away from two beings so almost equally abhorrent but from causes so opposite
On the following evening having another appointment with the gambling rascal I took care to have a coach waiting and to go muffled up and disguised as much as possible But for once my caution was superfluous No Mac Fane appeared
Not knowing what had happened and it being night and I thus properly equipped I resolved to drive to his lodgings Being there I sent up my name and was admitted to the bedchamber of this doughty exterminator of men If the temper of my mind
were not obnoxious to all cheerfulness I could almost have laughed the bully was so excellently beaten mortified and enraged His head was bound up his eyes were plaistered his thumb sprained his body of all colours and his mind as hotly fevered as Alexanders itself could have been had Alexander been vanquished at the battle of Issus
His impatience to have Henley in his power is now almost phrensy and it will be phrensy itself when he comes to find as find he will that though he can tie the hands of Henley his conquest must end there and that the prisoner will still defy and contemn his jailor So would I have him Henley though I hate I cannot but respect and admire
The other is a creature I detest myself for ever having known
Yet who but he could have gratified the unabating burning passion of my heart I feel Fairfax as if I had taken my leave of hope joy and human intercourse I have a quarrel with the whole race for having been forced into existence and into misery I have suffered an accumulation of disgrace for which I can never pardon myself And shall I permit the authors of it to live undisturbed in their insult and triumph over me No by hell come of me what will Lower I cannot be in my own esteem than I already am tremble those who made me so
Beating has but rendered this rascal
more impatient and active Every thing is prepared The house is hired aired and provided with a proper guardian The madman keeper has all his implements ready We have now only to watch and catch them at a proper distance from all succour to which in their amorous walks they have frequently strayed
Though even you Fairfax seem to disapprove my conduct I care not Not to give yourself further trouble with what you call such positive prudes might be a very good maxim for you who love your ease too much ever to be sensible of the boiling emotions of a soul like mine You are Guy Fairfax I am Coke Clifton Not but I should have imagined the swelling volumes of
injuries I have communicated would have lighted up a sympathetic flame of retributive vengeance even in you which not all your phlegm could have quenched But no matter—Though heaven earth and hell were to face me frowning I would on My purpose is fixed let it but be accomplished and consequences to myself will be the least of all my cares
C CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
SINCE the world began never yet had scoundrel wight so many damning accessary incidents to contend with as I have had during the whole progress of this affair All hell seems busy to blacken me—I have done the deed—They are secure—But the hour of exultation
itself is embittered and the legitimate triumph of vengeance made to wear the face of baseness—I have them but as I tell you there is an event that happened the very moment preceding the seizure which seems to have been contrived by the most malignant of the fiends of darkness purposely to steep me in guilt indelible
After our myrmidons had been three days in vain upon the watch on Friday last Anna and Henley sallied forth about two in the afternoon to take one of their amorous rambles As usual they were followed by Laura who had sent me word of their intention which she had learnt at breakfast time Henley it seems had previously been into the city
A scout was on the watch and when they appeared soon brought the intelligence All was in readiness The keeper with three stout fellows in one party and Mac Fane with four more in another The earliness of their setting out denoted they intended to lengthen their walk The great danger was that it should have been directed to Kensington Gardens as it has been several times lately but in this instance fortune was on our side
They went into the park passed the gardens walked beside the wall crossed the Kensington road and strayed exactly as we could have wished into the fields inclining toward Brompton
I was on horseback and by the help
of a pocket telescope kept them in view without the danger of being seen while they were in the park but as soon as they had left it I thought it necessary to spur on and be ready to prevent any blunders I crossed the road down the lane at the turnpike passed them and saw them arm in arm The sight was insupportable
From what afterward happened they must have seen me too though I imagined myself under cover of the hedge
You know my determination not to be robbed and indeed robbery at such a time and in such a place was a thing I had little reason to expect But a fellow who was lying in ambush at the turn of the lane calculated differently
He imagined nobody to be near and suddenly presented himself and his pistol with a demand of my money
I made a blow at him with the butt end of my whip which missed his head but fell on his shoulder My horse started he fired and missed but sprung suddenly forward and seized hold of the bridle He had another pistol which he was preparing imagining I should be more intimidated when I found him so desperate All this happened immediately after I had passed Anna and Henley and the latter perhaps having seen the fellow and certainly having heard the pistol flew in an instant leaped the hedge and just as the robber was again presenting his pistol made a blow and knocked it out of his hand
The pistol went off and the fellow took to his heels Henley instead of pursuing him stayed to enquire with much earnestness whether I had received any hurt
At this very damning speck of time Fairfax the keeper and his scoundrels who had been dogging them came up There were four of them two before and two behind The undaunted Henley severally knocked down the two fellows in front and in an instant would undoubtedly have been far enough out of all reach but in the very act of striking the second rascal he received a blow from a bludgeon dealt by the bloodhound keeper which levelled him with the earth
Never did my heart feel a twinge
like that moment I thought he was dead He lay motionless notwithstanding which the infernal keeper continued his occupation with unconcern turned the unresisting body over slipped on the straight waistcoat and bound down his arms
At length he gave a groan The instant I heard it I galloped off full speed It was too much for heart to endure
I soon afterward heard him shout for aid more than once but to this they presently put a stop by forcing a gag into his mouth They were not very far distant from the house where he was to be confined and to which he was immediately hurried away
There he at present remains His morning dialogues his noonday walks
and his nightly raptures are ended They are things past never more to return Of that torment at least I have rid myself and others compared to that are bliss ineffable I had sworn it should not be They might have read the oath largely written on my brow and ought instinctively to have known it to be the decree of fate
No Fairfax I never asked a favour from him never by my own consent received one Not all the tortures of all the tyrants the earth ever beheld should have extorted a consent so degrading His repeated interference was but a repetition of insult and as such deserves only to be remembered I asked not life at his hands and giving life instead of a blessing he did but give
torture The gift was detestable and the giver Had I perished he might have been safe and I at rest I asked not charity of him No On any terms I abhor existence but on those darkness and hell are not so hateful It has ulcerated my heart which not even vengeance itself I find has now the power to heal For life I am made miserable but it shall not be a single misery
While the keeper was acting his part of this gloomy drama Mac Fane as you may well imagine was not idle He and his unhallowed scoundrels presently made seizure of the lovely Anna
She stood confused and half terrified at the sudden flight of her enamorato She was more confused more terrified at the sudden appearance of her ravishers I charged the scoundrels on their lives to use her tenderly But what know such hellhounds of tenderness
She made I find a brave and by them unexpected resistance but there were too many of them and it was in vain Mac Fane himself is amazed at her beauty and harangues in his coarse and uncouth jargon on the energy and dignity of her deportment in a manner which shews that even he was awed
They were obliged however forcibly to stop her cries This I imagined would be the case and I had provided
them with a white cambric handkerchief But what will not the touch of such unconsecrated rascals defile
Yes Fairsax they laid their prophane hands on her clasped her in their loathsome arms polluted her with their foul fingers The embrace of a Clifton she might perhaps pardon but this violation she never can
Well then let her add this injury to the rest I know her to be my enemy sworn rooted and irrevocable And why should I tag regret to my sum of wretchedness No I will at least enjoy a moment of triumph however transitory Let her despise me but she shall remember me too
Give me but this brief bliss and there I would wish existence to end That
excepted pleasure there is none for me and of pain I am weary Yes I will glut my soul with this solitary short rapture and contemn the storms that may succeed I fear them not shall glory in them and be glad to find foes if such should arise with whom contention will not be disgrace I wish and seek them Their appearance would give me employment and employment would give me ease and ease would be heaven
C CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London DoverStreet
ALARM has sounded her horn The family is all confusion all doubt hurry fruitless enquiry and indecision The absence of Anna and Henley at dinner threw Mrs Clarke into consternation for Sir Arthur is down at WenbourneHill with old Henley and his
son Edward Each is indulging his dreams of improvement marriage docking of entails and other projects to which I have put an eternal stop
Finding the evening advance and that the two prisoners did not appear the housekeeper sent to the aunt Wenbourne She heard the story and was amazed She knew nothing of them
Ten oclock came and terror increased A messenger was dispatched to Lord FitzAllen and he could not at first tell whether to be sorry or glad for he did not an instant forget to hope that it was some rascally act on the part of Henley
He sent for the housekeeper She came and he interrogated her The answers she gave did not please him for
the tendency of all his questions was to the disadvantage and crimination of Henley whom she pertinaciously defended She affirmed so positively and so violently that it could not be any plan or evil intention of his that the proud lord was half angry but half obliged to doubt
I took care to be in the way expecting as it happened that a message would be sent to me I immediately attended his lordship and learned all that I have been relating I condoled with him and pretended to pity the family not neglecting to lead his thoughts into the channel that would best serve my purpose and to recapitulate every circumstance I could remember or invent that should induce him to believe Henley and Anna had eloped but affecting candour and
pretending to argue against the possibility of such a supposition
The effect I intended was produced He was fully convinced of Henleys being a low selfish contemptible scoundrel and Anna a forward disobedient insolent miss
I offered my services to pursue them and pressed his acceptance of them violently but was careful to counteract the offer by shewing the impossibility of their being overtaken and by exciting him rather to wish for their escape that Anna might be flagrantly disgraced and his penetration and authority vindicated to the whole world
I did not neglect before the departure of Mrs Clarke to display all my eagerness by sending round to numerous
inns and stablekeepers to enquire whether any postchaise had been hired that should any way accord with the circumstances Other messengers were dispatched by my advice to the different turnpikes and a third set sent off to various watchhouses to enquire whether any intelligence could be obtained of accidental deaths or other mischances
In short I was very diligent to hurry the legs of the servants and the brains of their governors into every direction but the right and thus for a little while in some sort diverted myself with the vagaries of the fools upon whom I was playing One chopfallen runner trod upon the heels of another each with a repetition of his diversified nothings till his lordship thought proper to recollect
it was time for his dignity to retire and not further disturb itself on personages and circumstances so derogatory
In the morning I was careful to be with him again I breakfasted with him and reiterated the same string of doubts conjectures alarms and insinuations
Mrs Clarke returned She had been up all night and her looks testified the distress of her mind She proposed sending an express after Sir Arthur of the propriety of which I endeavoured to make the uncle doubt but she was too zealous and her oratory had too much passion to be counteracted without danger I therefore when I saw resistance vain became the most eager adviser of the measure
There is no merit in imposing upon
stupidity so gross as that of this supercilious blockhead Mrs Clarke would be much more to be feared but that what she may say will be much less regarded Her affection for Anna is extreme and a high proof of the excellent qualities of her mistress
Nor was she one whit less enthusiastic in her praise of Henley Notwithstanding the forbidding frowns and reproofs of his lordship she ran over his whole history and dwelt particularly on an act of benevolence done by him to her niece that being a circumstance that had come immediately within her knowledge She spoke with such a fervour and overflow of heart that she once or twice moved me
She perceived something of the ridiculous
compunction I felt and fell on her knees wrung my hand and adjured me in a tone of very extraordinary emphasis to save her dear her precious young lady I scarcely could recover myself sufficiently to ask her which way it was in my power to save her and to turn the conversation by exclaiming to the peer—
Ah Had she but allowed me the happiness and honour of being her protector I think no man would have dared to do her harm
The old housekeeper however continued and began to denounce impending and inevitable evil on the persecutors of Henley and Anna I have no doubt she glanced at me and that her mistress had informed her of the triumph gained over me Why ay I should indeed
have been the scoff of the very rabble had I not taken vengeance for my wrongs
Yet her denunciations seemed prophetic or rather were feeble descriptions of the excruciating pangs by which I am hourly gnawn
I grew weary of the dull farce and put an end to it as speedily as I conveniently could leaving his sage lordship with the full conviction that the sudden disappearance of Henley and his niece could no otherwise be accounted for but by wilful elopement
I am now preparing for a very different visit A visit of vengeance I expect no pleasure no gratification but that alone To prove the danger of injury done to me to punish the perpetrators
to exult at their lamentations and to look down with contempt at all menace or retribution is now my last remaining hope Let me but enjoy this and all other expectation I willingly relinquish—I am going—I have them in my grasp—They shall feel me now
C CLIFTON
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
WHERE I am what is to become of me or whether I am ever to see my Louisa more are things of which I am utterly ignorant I write not with an expectation that my friend should read but to memorandum events of which perhaps the world will never hear and
which should this paper by any accident be preserved it will scarcely believe
This vile Clifton—Surely I ought never again to call him my Louisas brother—This perverse man has grown desperate in error The worst of my forebodings have not equalled his intents His plan has long been mischief Hypocrisy violence rape no means are too foul—Such things are incomprehensible
I am confined in a lone house somewhere behind Knightsbridge I was seized I know not how by a band of ruffians and conveyed hither Every kind of despicable deceit appears to have been practised Frank was decoyed from me He flew once again to save
the life as he thought of this base minded man I know not what is become of him but have no doubt that he like me is somewhere suffering imprisonment if he be permitted yet to live
No thoughts are so tragical no suspicions so horrid as not to be justified by deductions and appearances which are but too probable Yet I will not sink under difficulties nor be appalled at the sight of danger be it death or what else it may That I am in a state of jeopardy my seizure and imprisonment prove That Frank is still in greater peril if still in existence I have just cause to conclude There were pistols fired and one after he leaped the hedge I know not at whom directed
nor what its fate—I would if possible ward off apprehension I know it to be folly and I will endeavour to steel my heart against this as well as other mistakes If he be dead or if he be to die grief will not revive or make him invulnerable His own virtue must preserve him or nothing can and in that I will confide
That evil is meant to me it would be absurd to doubt but of what nature where it is to begin or where end that time must disclose For I will not permit myself to imagine the trifling indignities or violence I have hitherto encountered an evil worthy of complaint
Tis true my arms are bruised and I was rudely dealt with by the vile men
who seized me and that there should be such men is an evil But to me it is none or not worth a thought If I would firmly meet what is to come I must not weakly bewail what is past
I am not immortal neither is my strength infinite but the powers I have I will use We are oftener vanquished because we are fearful than because we are feeble Our debility takes birth in our cowardice and true fortitude is not to be abashed by trifling dangers
I meant to write a narrative but these reflections are forced upon me by my situation I will proceed
I was brought here on Friday by several men of vulgar but ferocious countenances and my maid Laura with me I made all the resistance in my power and the men without any regard to what I suffered in body or mind twisted my arms behind me so that I imagined one of them had been dislocated and forced a handkerchief into my mouth handling tossing and griping me without any respect whatever to decency or pain till they had conveyed me from the fields in which I was walking with Frank Henley to the place where I am
I scarcely can guess at the distance but they hurried me away with great violence crossing several gates and forcing apertures through hedges for
the space I believe of not more than half an hour it might be much less
They brought me to a house walled round into which having been admitted by an old woman they hurried me forward up stairs and shut me into a room decently furnished with a fire in it and a bedchamber adjoining but with the windows barred up and in which every precaution had evidently been taken to render escape impracticable
Laura was shut up with me and there was a slip of paper on the table on which was written—
Laura is allowed to fetch whatever you may want Let her ring the bell and the door will be opened
—The handwriting was Mr Cliftons
Among other necessaries there was a
bookcase furnished with the works of some of the best authors and a writingdesk with pens ink and paper
The same old woman that opened the gate for the men who brought me constantly comes to open the door for Laura when I ring But this she does with great caution A chain similar to what is common for streetdoors is hung on the outside which she puts up and looks to see that I am not near every time she opens the door The first time she came I stood just behind Laura and in a morose tone she bade me go back or she would lock the door again
After Laura had been several times down stairs I enquired what discoveries she had made and as she informs me
the house appears to have no inhabitants but this old woman and ourselves The old woman resides in the kitchen The doors and windows are all secured and the same care is taken to prevent escape below stairs as above
The food that has been brought us was good and well dressed but almost cold Laura says she is sure it cannot be dressed in the house which is most probable
I communicate but few of my thoughts to Laura because I fear I have good reason to be suspicious of her I have long remarked her partiality in favour of Mr Clifton intermixed with some contradictory appearances which I could not solve at the time but which I now believe to have been aukward attempts
to conceal that partiality and to mislead me which she in part effected
The base designs of Mr Clifton from the nature of them cannot have been very recent and nothing perhaps was more necessary to carry them into execution than the seducing of the woman who by her situation could give him the best intelligence
Since I have begun to doubt her I have purposely crossquestioned her occasionally and she has answered with hesitation and incoherency If however I can perceive the least hope that this letter should be conveyed to the postoffice by any person who may visit the house and whom she may see but I cannot I will trust it to her The trust indeed is nothing for it cannot increase my
peril The persecution of Mr Clifton must prove most pernicious to himself Unless he can deprive me of conscious innocence it can injure me but little
Among other ambiguous circumstances respecting Laura she scarcely seems to repine at her confinement though she has several times affected uneasiness which while she acted it she evidently did not feel Beside she is permitted to stay below and run about the house which whatever caution of bars and bolts may have been used she would not be suffered to do as I should suppose were she really in my interest
About an hour ago we heard the yard
bell ring and the gate open and she was eager to go down I encouraged her and she rung for our turnkey She had seen me writing and without being spoken to took upon her to suppose it was a letter to my Louisa and told me she did believe she could get it conveyed to the post I am persuaded this is preconcerted officiousness But as I said I have nothing to lose and there is a bare possibility of hope
When she came up stairs again she told me that the person who had rung at the bell was some man of the neighbourhood who had brought the old woman various trifling articles and whom she had ordered to return at five oclock with tea and sugar
If contrary to all expectation this
should come to hand Louisa write to my father inform him of all you know and especially write to Mr Clifton It will be ineffectual but write If there be truth in woman I would rejoice to suffer much more mischief than he has the power to inflict could I but by that means restore him to a sense of his own worth or rather of the worth of virtue
Why do I talk of mischief and his power to inflict I hope to shew him he has no power over me and that the strength of men and the force of walls locks and bars are feeble when but resolutely opposed by the force of truth actuating the will of weak and despised woman—Injury—Poor depraved mistaken man It is himself he injures
Every effort he makes is but a new assault upon his own peace It is heaping coals of fire upon his own head which it has long been the wish of my heart to exstinguish
Had I but any reason to believe Frank Henley in safety I would not suffer a single sigh to escape me But I know too well Mr Clifton dare not permit him to be at liberty while he keeps me confined Surely nothing can be attempted against his life And yet I sometimes shake with horror There is a reason which I know not whether I dare mention yet if Mr Clifton should think proper to lay snares to intercept and read my letters he ought to be informed of this dangerous circumstance I know not Louisa whether
I am addressing myself to you or him but Frank Henley at the time that I was seized and he likewise as I suppose had bankbills in his possession to the amount of eight thousand pounds
He had been that very morning into the city to receive the money on his fathers account and intended as we returned to leave them with Sir Arthurs banker
If men such as those who seized on me were employed for the same violent purpose against him and if they should discover a sum which would to them be so tempting who can say that his life would be safe Frank Henley the preserver of Clifton the preceptor of truth and the friend of man the benevolent magnanimous nobleminded
Frank whose actions were uniform in goodness whose heart was all affection and whose soul all light—and murdered
Why do I indulge a thought so unhuman so impossible It could not be—No no it could not be A supposition so extravagant is guilt—Yet though I who cannot aid him ought not to encourage such doubts let those who can be warned and be active
I am addressing myself to vacancy No one hears me No one will read what I write
I will be calm It is my situation it is confinement the bars I see and the bolts I hear that inspire these gloomy
thoughts They are unfounded and certainly unavailing—He may have escaped He may at this instant be in search of me Hurrying enquiring despairing and distracted in much deeper distress than I am for were I but sure of his safety I could almost defy misfortune Let not the world lose him Oh If any human creature should in time read this let him hear let him shudder let him beware
Pardon Louisa I do not address myself to you Too well I know my friend to doubt her No cold delay no unfeeling negligence no rash phrensy is to be feared from her—Alas What I am writing she will never read It cannot be The man I have to encounter is too practised in deceit
or I should not have been where I am
Well then may he himself read And while he reads thus let his conscience speak—
There is a man whose worth and virtues are such that the loss of him would be a loss to the whole human race From this man I received a thousand acts of kindness for which I returned ten thousand insults I repulsed him scorned him struck him and he disregarding the innumerable injuries I had done him but a few hours after plunged headlong down the dreadful abyss to snatch me from the grave I was dead and he gave me life In return I have robbed him of what men prize even more than life of
liberty But if I have put him in jeopardy if I suffer him to remain in the power of hardened and wicked men and if he perish mercy cannot pardon me justice cannot punish and charity itself must hold me in abhorrence
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London DoverStreet
MY actions are now become one continued chain of artifice But were that all and were not the objects of this artifice of a nature so new and so painful it would afford me amusement and not be any cause of vexation
As it is I feel apprehensions which are wholly different from any I ever felt before To deceive in countries where deception is a pastime authorised practised and applauded is I find something very opposite to what would seem the same thing in this gloomy land of apathy and phlegm There it is a sport and a pleasure Here it is a business of serious danger and general detestation But no matter
I am obliged to watch times and seasons for I have little doubt that I myself am watched That old housekeeper I am sure suspects me and her affection for her mistress is so full so restless that it cannot but sharpen her intellects and make her employ every engine she can imagine for discovery I walked up to
Fozards as I often do for my horse and I saw one of Sir Arthurs servants pass the yard soon after I entered it I have little doubt but he was dogging me
I got on horseback and rode slowly down toward Pimlico and over Westminster bridge but I saw no more of him
As soon as I was out of town I mended my pace and gradually increased it to a full gallop Passing through Vauxhall I crossed the Thames again at Batterseabridge rode through Chelsea and presently gained the Brompton road
My first visit was to the keeper The fellow has a strange look A villainous physiognomy I enquired after
his prisoner and found he was safe The house is well secured not modern but in the style of the last century strong and heavy and before this affair was thought of had been fitted up for the purposes of confinement but is now still better fortified It has a garden which is surrounded by a high wall in which the prisoner is suffered to exercise himself but not without the very necessary precaution of confining his arms in the strait waistcoat securing the doors and attentively watching his motions
I ordered the fellow to see that Henley wanted for nothing to let a boy he has wait upon him and to keep out of his way himself for two reasons of my own I do not wish Henley to suffer the insults of such a vulgar and narrowsouled
rascal my revenge is of a nobler kind Neither am I quite certain that this keeper hardened obdurate and pitiless as he is could withstand Henleys oratory At least I would not willingly have him subjected to the temptation though the fellow is so averse to any sense of human pity that I think the danger is very small
He was offended however at my thinking proper to direct him and surlily told me he understood his trade
Here I met Mac Fane by appointment He cannot forget the disgrace of Coventgarden and spoke of Henley with a degree of malignity that would want but little encourageing to become dangerous I am to pay him the thousand pounds in a few days and our
place of rendezvous is then to be once more at the Shakespeare
I was glad to escape from the company of these new inmates of mine these firstborn of Beelzebub and to fly to my other prisoner I say fly for I set out with eagerness enough but every step I took I felt my ardour abate The houses are more than half a mile apart and I thought proper to go thither on foot and not to take any common path but to cross the fields as the securest mode
Laura knew I was to be there and had her tale ready She presently came down I enquired after her mistress and if her account be true this heroic woman has not shed a tear but has behaved
with all her apparent customary calm She is a divine creature
As I rode along I made a thousand determinations that all should be that day ended I cursed myself pledged my honour used every method which might have shewn me how much I doubted my own resolution to prove to myself how irrevocably determined I was The little remaining firmness I had left wholly died away at the relation of Laura
I must stay till the calm dignity of her mind shall begin to decline The nature of her confinement the fears she cannot but have for her Henley the recollection of her friends and father and her apprehensions of me must all
quickly contribute to produce this effect
I do not pretend to deny that I feel a reluctance to a first interview but I am determined the first shall be the only one I know myself and know when once I am heated it will not then be Anna St Ives a miracle though she be that can overawe or conquer me I have the stubbornness of woman and the strength of man I am reckless of what is to follow but the thing shall be There is not a particlè in my frame that does not stand pledged to the deed by honour and oath It is the only event for which I care or for which I live
Nor shall I live long when once it is over I foresee I shall not But that
is not a painful no it is a satisfactory thought I would even present her the pistol would she but dispatch me the moment my revenge is gratified I would then sleep and forget all that is and all that might have been
She has been writing I knew it would be one source of amusement to her and I provided her with implements Laura asked and she owned it was a letter to my sister which she could wish were sent But that must not be She means to give it to Laura I of course shall be the next receiver
This girl Laura acts her part ill She is not half sorrowful enough I wonder Anna does not remark it and Laura says she does not though that is no very good proof The complexion
of her letter I think will tell me how far she does or does not confide in her maid I know she holds suspicion in contempt and yet I think my high opinion of her discrimination would find some abatement were I certain that she did not suspect this shallow girl
My soul burns to have it over And yet like a coward I refrain But I will not long submit to such contemptible qualms I will not continue to be diffident of myself for it is that only by which I am withheld Not a single wrong is forgotten I repeat them in my sleep Ay Fairfax such sleep as I have is nothing but a repetition of them and a rehearsal of the revenge by which they are to be appeased I will return tomorrow
or perhaps next day and then— You shall then hear more from
C CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
SIR Arthur arrived in town this morning He brought the usurer Henley up with him in the same carriage
Young St Ives set out before them and was in London last night He
drove directly to my lodgings and I was fortunately at home This did not look as if I were in the secret and if he had any suspicions he had not the courage to intimate them
I condoled with him said it was a strange affair a riddle I could not read a mystery which time must elucidate for it baffled all conjecture He did little more than echo me and I pretended I would have ridden half over the world to recover his sister had there been but the least clue but there was not and I found myself obliged to sit still in despair and astonishment
He said it was all very true and he was very tired He should therefore drive home get some refreshment and go to bed This fellow Fairfax walks
on two legs looks the world in the face and counts for one on the musterroll
But nature crescent in him grew only in thews and bulk
Yet on the parade fools and gapers will mistake him for a man
Contention with Anna St Ives is honourable but to seem to shrink from beings like these or to practise concealment with such mere images of entity is repugnant to the generous scorn they merit and inspire Imperious necessity however prescribes law and I took care to prevent Sir Arthurs visit to me by having notice sent me of his arrival and immediately going to the encounter
To anticipate is to overturn the cardcastles of this puny race Come upon
them unexpectedly stare at them undauntedly and interrogate them abruptly and they are put to the rout Their looks even intreat pardon for the ill they thought but durst not utter
Sir Arthur I own beheld me with a suspicious eye and though he endeavoured to seem to credit me he did it with an aukward air
Mrs Clarke hearing I was there came in and exceeding even all her former servour importuned me in the most direct and vehement manner to tell what I had done with Mr Henley and her dear young lady She more than ever disconcerted me Her exuberant passion addressed itself alternately to me and her master Her tears as well as her words were abundant her urgency
and ardour extreme and she ended her apostrophe with again conjuring me to tell what was become of her dear dear young lady
Ay pray pray do—whimpered the baronet in a maudlin tone moved by the unfeigned passion of his housekeeper I gave him a look and the driveller added—if you know
I was glad of a pretence to get away and after telling him the distress of his mind was the only apology for his conduct I instantly quitted him without any effort on his part to detain me
Among other things Mrs Clarke repeatedly reproached herself for not having written or sent to my sister and the knight acknowledged—
Ay it was very neglectful But his mind had
been so disturbed that he had forgotten it too
Why do I misapply my time on beings so imbecile Maugre all my resolves I have not seen her yet Fairfax Nor have I opened her letter I dare not Her Henley I am sure is in it and additional rage would be indubitable madness Neither is this the thing most to be feared She has an expanded heart a capacious a benevolent heart and she may have said something which were I to see and yet do the deed which shall be done it might shew me more fiendlike than even the foul reflection of my present thoughts Perturbation has done its work it needs no increase This quality of benevolence in which they both glory is torture
to recollect I say Fairfax I never asked their charity Did I not spurn it from me the moment I was insulted by the offer Be pity bestowed on beggars the partiality that springs from affection or the punishment due to neglect for me
I will be with her speedily Fairfax Though I linger I do not relent Such mercy as the being out of doubt can bestow she shall receive the pleading world should not wring a greater from me
C CLIFTON
P S
I must be speedy my sister will hear of the affair by tomorrows post and I shall have her whole artillery playing upon me and in the form of
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
The Lone House
ONCE more though but in imagination let me converse with my friend I know it is delusion but it was the sweet custom of our souls and well may be indulged Ignorant perhaps of the cause my Louisa is at this moment accusing me of a neglect which my heart
disavows Let me as usual give her the history of that heart it is a theme from which she has taught me to derive profit
This is the fifth day of my confinement I have the same walls the same windows and bars to contemplate and the same bolting and locking and clanking to hear It is with difficulty that I can at some few intervals divert my thoughts from the gloom which my own situation the distress of my family and the danger of a youth so dear to virtue contribute to inspire
Nor do I know what at this moment may be the affliction of my friend Should she have heard she cannot but discover the principal agent of this dark plot and exquisite indeed would
be the anguish of her mind could she forget that fortitude and resignation are duties May they never be forgotten by me during this my hour of trial
My shoulder I fear has received some strain or hurt the pain of it continues to be great and the inflammation is not abated The bruises on my arms have increased in blackness and their tension is not in the least diminished The hands of those bad men must have been as rough and callous as their hearts they had no mercy in their gripe
There is a lonesome stillness in this house that favours the dismal reveries which my situation suggests If my handkerchief do but drop I start and the •stirring of a mouse places Clifton full before me Yet I repel this weakness
with all my force I despise it Nor shall these crude visions the hideous phantoms of the imagination subdue that fortitude in which I must wholly confide
For these last two days Laura has pretended to grieve at confinement but it is mimic forrow words of which the heart has no knowledge She perceives I suspect her and her acting is but the more easily detected
I know not whether it be not my duty to determine to exclude her though that seems like cowardice I think it is not in her power to harm me and for telling if she have been false she has done her worst I never made a practice of concealment neither will I now have recourse to such a fallacious
expedient Yet she sleeps in the same chamber with me and ought I not to beware of inspiring perfidy with projects Tis true my slumbers are broken my nights restless and the cracking of the wainscot is as effectual in waking me as a thunderclap could be I am resolved however to take the key out of the door and either hide it or hold it all night in my hand Mischief is meant me or why am I here
I am continually looking into the closets behind the doors and under the beds and drawers I am haunted by the supposition that I shall every moment see this bad man start up before me What know I of the base engines he may employ or the wicked arts to which he may have recourse
But he shall not subdue me He may disturb me by day and terrify me by night but he shall not subdue me Shall the pure mind shake in the prefence of evil Shall the fortitude which safety feels vanish at the approach of danger
Louisa I will steel my soul to meet him I know not how or when he will come I cannot tell what are the vile black instruments with which he may work Sleep I scarcely have any I eat with hesitation and drink with trembling I have heard of potions and base practices that make the heart shudder Yet I sometimes think I could resist even these He shall not subdue me Or if he do it shall be by treachery such as fiends would demur to perpetrate
Why do I think thus of him Surely surely he cannot be so lost as this Yet here I am I own I tremble and recoil but it is with the dread that he should plunge himself so deep in guilt as never more to rise
Poor Frank Where art thou How are thy wretched thoughts employed Or art thou still allowed to think Art thou among the living If thou art what is thy state Thine is now the misery of impotence thou who hast proved thyself so mighty in act Thou wouldst not strike thou wouldst not injure and yet thy foe would sink before thee had he not allied himself to perfidy and had he but▪left thee free His most secret machinations could not have withstood thy searching spirit Thou wouldst have
been here These bolts would have flown these doors would have opened and I should have seen my saviour
He hears me not Nor thou Louisa I am destitute of human aid
Farewell farewell Ah Farewell indeed for I am talking to emptiness and air
Do I seem to speak with bitterness of heart Is there enmity in my words—Surely I do not feel it The spirit of benevolence and truth allows nay commands me to hate the vice but not its poor misgoverned agents They are wandering in the maze of mistake Ignorance and passion are their guides and doubt and desperation their tormentors
Alas Rancour and revenge are their inmates be kindness and charity mine
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
BromptonHouse
I AM here—At the scene of action—she is in the room above me and I am ridding myself of reluctance stringing my nerves for assault I know not why this should be necessary but I feel that it is
I am waiting to question Laura but I ordered her to be in no haste to come down when she heard me ring I would not have my victim suspect me to be here I would come upon her by surprise and not when she was armed and prepared for repulse I will order the old woman to go presently and open and shut the gate as if she were letting the person out who came in when I rung
I expect nay am certain her resistance will be obstinate—But unavailing—I say unavailing—Neither house nor road are near and yet I could wish the scene were removed to the dark gloom of a forest embosomed where none but tigers or hyenas should listen to her
shrieks—I know they will be piercing—Heartrending—But—
I tell you Fairfax I have banished all sense of human pity from my bosom it is an enemy to my purpose and that must be—Though the heavens should shake and the earth open it must
Yet do not think Fairfax bent as I am on the full fruition of love and vengeance I would use cruelty—Understand me I mean wanton or unnecessary brutality I will be as forbearing as she will permit I fear she will not suffer me to caress her tenderly—But she shall never sleep in the arms of Henley—She never shall—I will make sure of that My mind is reconciled to all chances that excepted
As I passed I called at the madhouse where I found Mac Fane and the scowling keeper in high divan They have been horribly alarmed Henley has attempted an escape which he was in danger of effecting but he is brought back after having led them a short chase
The apprehensions of these scoundrels concerning future consequences are very great and swell almost to terror They talked strangely asked which way we were to get rid of him at last and conceive him to be a dangerous enemy Their thoughts seem tinged with dark lurkings which they dare not own and certainly dare not act without my leave These fellows are all villainy A league with demons would be less abominable
—I must close the account and shake off such pestilential scoundrels—
Laura comes I will question her a little and then—
DoverStreet
I am returned and am still tormented by delay—I cannot help it—I said I would not use wilful cruelty that were to heap unnecessary damnation
Laura began by softening my heart with her narrative Her angel mistress is all resignation all kindness all benevolence She almost forgets herself and laments only for me This I could have withstood but she has been brutally treated by that intolerable ban dog Mac Fane and his blood hounds Fairfax
how often have I gazed in rapture at the beauteous carnation of her complexion the whiteness of her hands and arms and the extreme delicacy of their texture And now those tempting arms Laura tells me nay her legs too are in twenty places disfigured and black with the gripes and bruises she received Gibbets and racks overtake the wolfhearted villains Her shoulder is considerably hurt It is inflamed and as she acknowledges very painful yet she does not utter a complaint
Why did this heroic woman ever injure me By what fatal influence am I become her foe Her gentle kindness her calm unruffled yet dignified patience I have experienced—Madman—Idiot—Have I not experienced her
hatred too her abhorrence Did not her own lips pronounce the sentence And do I not know her Will she recede And shall I—Never—Never—No no—It must be
But I did rightly This was not the moment There would have been something barbarously mean in making her exert the little strength she has with such pain and peril
I rode to Kensington and procured her a lenitive with which I returned The purpose of vengeance excepted I would feel as generously as herself and even vengeance did I know how I would dignify—But do not surmise that I would retract—No by heaven A thought so weak has never once entered my heart
I am restless and must return—Till it be over earth has no pleasure for me and after I am sure it will have none No—No—I have but this single gleam of satisfaction The light is going out give me but one full blaze and I shall then welcome total darkness
C CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON
TO GUY FAIRFAX
London DoverStreet
FOR a few days after having secured my tormentors I enjoyed something like comparative ease but the ugly imps that haunted me in fiercer crowds again are swarming round me I am too miserable to exist in this state it
must be ended It is a turmoil that surpasses mortal sufferance If she will wrestle against fate it is not my fault I have no wish to practise more upon her than is necessary But the thing must be
Sleep I have none rest I have none peace I have none I get up and sit down walk out and come back mutter imprecations unconsciously to myself and turn the eyes of insolent curiosity and ridiculous apprehension upon me in the street A fellow has just now watched me home deeming me a lunatic I suppose for he had seen my agitation and heard the curses which I knew not were uttered aloud till his impertinent observation of me brought it to my recollection
But this shall not be It shall end Though I rend her heartstrings for it I will have ease The evening approaches my horse is ordered and I will be gone I will not cannot endure this longer
BromptonHouse
I am here and have talked with Laura She owns she is suspected and that her mistress takes the key out of the bedchamber door when they go to rest and hides it Laura by accident has discovered where She puts it on the ledge behind the head of her bed but within the reach of her arm
This has suggested a thought I will wait here till midnight and sleep have
lulled her apprehensions It will be better than facing her in the glare of day Her eye Fairfax is terrible in her anger It is too steady too strong in conscious innocence to encounter Darkness will give me courage and her terror and despair For it must come to that It cannot otherwise be and be it must In the blaze of noon when fortitude is awake and the heart beating high perhaps with resentment nothing but the goadings of despair could make me face her The words she would use would be terrible but her looks would petrify—By this stratagem I shall avoid them
Nor do I blush to own my cowardice in the presence of Anna St Ives she being armed with innocence and selfapprobation
and I abashed by conscious guilt violence and intentional destruction
Why aye—Let the thick swarth of night cover us I feel with a kind of horrid satisfaction the deep damnation of the deed It is the very colour and kind of sin that becomes me sinning as I do against Anna St Ives With any other it would be boys sport a thing to make a jest of after dinner but with her it is rape in all its wildest contortions shrieks and expiring groans
I lie stretched on burning embers and I have hours yet to wait Oh that I were an idiot—The night is one dead dun gloom It looks as if murrain mildew and contagion were abroad hovering over earth and brooding
plagues I will walk out awhile among them—Will try to meet them—Would that my disturbed imagination could but conjure up goblins sheeted ghosts heads wanting bodies and hands dropping blood and realize the legends of ignorance and infancy so that I could freeze memory and forget the horrors by which I am haunted
It draws near midnight—I am now in her apartment the room next to her bedchamber
My orders have been obeyed the old woman pretending to lock up her prisoner shot back the bolts put down the chain and left the door ready for me to enter unheard
Laura has her instructions She is to pretend only but not really to undress herself and I bade her not lie down lest she should drop asleep When she thinks it time she is to glide round steal the key and open the door
I am fully prepared am undressed and ready for the combat I have made a mighty sacrifice Youth fortune fame all blasted life renounced and infamy ascertained It is but just then that I should have full enjoyment of the fleeting bliss
Surely this hussy sleeps No—I hear
her stir—She is at the door And now—
Heaven and hell are leagued against me to frustrate my success Yet succeed I will in their despite—Tis now broad day and here I am in the same chamber encountered reproved scorned frantic and defeated
As soon as I heard Laura with the key in the door I put out the candles She turned the lock the door opened and I sprang forward Blundering idiot as I was I had forgotten to remove a chair and tumbled over it The terrified Anna was up and out of bed in an instant The door opens inward to the bedchamber Her fear gave her
strength she threw Laura away and clapped to the door
By this time I had risen and was at it I set my shoulder to it with a sudden effort and again it half opened I pushed forward but was repelled with more than equal opposition My left arm in the struggle got wedged in the door the pain was excessive and the strength with which she resisted me incredible By a sudden shock I released my hand but not without bruising it very much and tearing away the skin
My last effort was returned by one more than equal on her part But I imagine she had set her foot against something which gave way for she suddenly
came down with a blow and a sound that made my heart shrink
Still I endeavoured to profit by it though not soon enough for the first moment I was too much alarmed She could not feel pain or blows and rose instantaneously I forced the door some little way and she then gave a single shriek—It was a dreadful one—and was followed by a repulse which I could not overcome The door was closed and like lightning locked I then heard her begin to pant and heave for breath—After a few seconds she exclaimed—Clifton You are a bad man—A treacherous wicked man and are seeking your own destruction—I am your prisoner but I fear you not—Mark me Clifton I fear you not
I hesitated some time at last I ventured to ask—Are you hurt madam
I do •ot know I do not care I value no hurt you can do me I am above harm from you—Though you have recourse to perfidy and violence yet I defy you In darkness or in light I defy you
Let me intreat you madam to retire to rest
No I will stand here all night I will not move
Upon my honour madam upon my soul I will molest you no more to night
I tell you man I fear you not Night or day I fear you not
I request I humbly intreat you would
not expose yourself to the injuries of the night air and the want of sleep
I will sleep no more I want no sleep I fear no injuries not even those you intend me
Indeed madam you do not know the danger—
Mimic benevolence and virtue no more Clifton It is base in you It is beneath a mind like yours—You are a mistaken man Dreadfully mistaken You think me devoted but I am safe Unless you kill you never can conquer me Beware Turn back Destruction is gaping for you if you proceed
Need she have told me this Fairfax
Could she think I knew it not—But she too is mistaken Her courage is high I grant is admirable and were any other but I her opponent as she says not to be conquered I adore the noble qualities of her mind but great though they are when she defies me she overrates them
I own her warning was awful My heart shrunk from it and I retired taking care that she should hear me as I went that she might be encouraged to go to rest My wellmeant kindness was vain She never did confide in me and never can I heard her call Laura and order her to strike a light set an arm chair and bring her clothes after which I understood from what I heard that she dressed herself and sat
down in it with her back to the door there waiting patiently till the morning
How she will behave or what she will say to Laura I cannot divine Most probably she will insist on banishing her the apartment for she never gave servants much employment and always doubted whether the keeping of them were not an immoral act therefore is little in want of their assistance
But let her discard this treacherous and now ineffective tool I want her no more I will not quit the house Fairfax I will neither eat nor sleep till I have put her to the trial which she so rashly defies At her uncles table she defied me and imagined she had gazed me into cowardice She knew me not
it was but making vengeance doubly sure This experience ere now should have taught her Has she escaped me Is she not here Does she not feel herself in the ravishers arms If not a few hours only and she shall
Let her not be vain of this second repulse she has given me it ought to increase her terror for it does but add to my despair My distempered soul will take no medicine but one and that must be administered though more venomous than the sting of scorpion or tooth of serpent and more speedy in dissolution
I left her room that she might breakfast undisturbed There is something
admirably astonishingly firm in the texture of her mind Laura has been down babbling to me all she knew At eight oclock when it had been light a full hour Anna after once or twice crossing her chamber to consider turned the key and resolutely opened the door expecting by her manner Laura says to see me rush in for she threw it suddenly open as if fearful it should knock her down
She walked out looked steadfastly around examined every part of the chamber and after having convinced herself I was not there sat down to write at the table where not an hour before I had been seated When the breakfast was brought she bade Laura take it away again saying she had no
appetite but immediately recollecting herself ejaculated—
Fie—It is weak It is wrong
—And added—
Stay Laura Put it down again
She then with a calm and determined sedateness began to serve herself and Laura treating this perfidious woman For no matter that I made her so such she is with the same equanimity of temper and amenity as formerly The mistress ate for she was innocent and resolved but the maid could not for she was guilty and in a continual tremor Be pacified—said Anna to her—
Compose your thoughts and take your breakfast I am much more sorry for than angry at the part you have acted You have done yourself great injury but me none at least so
I trust—Be appeased and eat your breakfast Or if you cannot eat with me go down and eat it in peace below
The benevolent suavity of this angel has made the lightminded hussey half break her heart Her penitential tears now flow in abundance and she has been officiously endeavouring to petition me not to harm so good so forgiving so heavenly a young lady I begin to fear she would willingly be a traitor next to me and endeavour to open the doors for her mistress But that I will prevent I will not quit the house till all is over I have said it Fairfax
I will then immediately set Henley free tell him where she is where I am
to be found and leave him to seek his own mode of vengeance Should he resort to the paltry refuge of law I own that then I would e•ude pursuit But should the spirit of man stir within him and should he dare me to contention I would fly to meet him in the mortal strife He is worthy of my arm and I would shew how worthy I am to be his opposite
It is now noon and Laura has again been with me repeating the same story with additions and improvements Anna has been talking to her and has made a deep impression upon her She is all penitence and petition and is exceedingly
troublesome with her whining her tears and her importunity which I have found it difficult to silence
I learn from her own account she has owned all and betrayed all she knew and Anna has been telling her that she and I and all such sinners however deep and deadly ought to be pitied counselled and reformed and that our errors only ought to be treated with contempt disdain and hatred She has talked to her in the most gentle soothing and sympathetic manner till the fools heart is ready to burst
Anna has drawn a picture of my state of mind which has terrified her—And so it ought—She has been sobbing kneeling and praying for my sake for Annas sake for Gods sake to be merciful
and do no more mischief
Her mistress is an angel and not a woman
—Why true—
Never had a young lady so forgiving so kind and so courageous a heart
—True again—
But it is impossible if I should be so wicked as to lay violent hands upon her for her not to sink and lie for mercy at my feet
—Once more true true—
Mercy—I have it not know it not nor can know She herself has banished it from my breast and from her own at least the mercy I would ask—For could it be— Were there not a Henley— No no—There is one wide destruction for us all I am on the brink and they must down with me—Have they not placed me there Are
they not now pulling me weighing me sinking me
This is the moment in which I would conjure up all the wrongs insults contempts and defiances she has heaped upon me—What need I—They come unbidden—And now for the last act of the tragedy
I have kept my word Fairfax I have been have faced her have— You shall hear I will faithfully paint all that passed I will do her justice and in this shew some sparks of magnanimity of which perhaps she does not think me capable—No matter—
It was necessary the temper of my mind should be wound up to its highest
pitch before I could approach her I rushed up stairs made the bolts fly and the lock start back Yet the moment the door opened I hesitated—
However I shook myself with indignation entered and saw her standing firmly in the middle of the apartment ready to assert the bold defiance she had given me The fixed resolution of her form the evident fortitude of her soul and the steadfast encounter of her eye were discomfiting Like a coward I stood I cannot tell how long not knowing what to say she looking full upon me examining my heart and putting thought to the rack Benignant as she is at such onsets of the soul she feels no mercy
Selfresentment at the tame crestfallen
fallen countenance I wore at last produced an effort and I stammered out—Madam—
Her only answer was a look—I endeavoured to meet her eye but in vain
I continued—From my present manner you will perceive madam I am conscious of the advantage you have over me and that my own heart does not entirely approve all I have done
I see something of your confusion—I wish I saw more
But neither can it forget its injuries
What are they
The time was when I met you with joy addressed you with delight and
gazed on you with rapture—Nay I gaze so still
Poor weak man
Yes madam I know how much you despise me A thousand repeated wrongs inform me of it they have risen one over another in mountainous oppression to my heart till it could endure no more
Feeble mistaken man
In those happy days when I approached you first my thoughts were loyal my means were honest and my intentions pure
Pure
Yes madam pure
You never yet knew what purity meant
I came void of guile with an open and honourable offer of my heart I made no difficulties felt no scruples harboured no suspicions In return for which I was doubted catechised chidden trifled with and insulted When I hoped for sympathy I met rebuke and while my affections glowed admiration yours retorted contempt Your heart was prepossessed it had no room for me it excluded me scorned me and at the first opportunity avowed its hatred
Go on—Neither your mistakes your accusations nor your anger shall move me—I pity your errors Continue to ascribe that to my injustice or to a worse motive if a worse you can find which was the proper fruit of your
irascible and vindictive temper Reconcile your own actions to your own heart if you can and prove to yourself I merit the perfidy assault and imprisonment you have practised upon me as well as the mischief which I have every reason to suppose you intend
Then madam avoid it Spare both yourself and me the violence you forebode
What Sink before unruly passion Stand in awe of vice Willingly administer to shameless appetites and a malignant spirit of revenge—Never while I have life
Stop—Beware—I am not master of my own affections I am in a state little short of phrensy—Be the means fair or foul mine you shall be—The decrees
of Fate are not more fixed—I have sworn it and though fire from Heaven waited to devour me I will keep my oath—Could you even yet but think of me as perhaps I deserve— I say could you madam—
I cannot will not marry you Nothing you can say nothing you can threaten nothing you can act shall make me
Be less hasty in your contempt—Fear me not—Scorn for scorn injury for injury and hate for hate
I hate only your errors I scorn nothing but vice—On the virtues of which a mind like yours is capable my soul would dilate with ecstasy and my heart would doat But you have sold yourself to crookedness Base threats unmanly
terrors and brute violence are your despicable engines—Wretched man They are impotent—They turn upon yourself me they cannot harm—I am above you
I care not for myself—I have already secured infamy—I have paid the price and will enjoy the forfeiture—Had you treated me with the generous ardent love I so early felt for you all had been well—I the happiest of men and you the first of women But your own injustice has dug the pit into which we must all down—It is wide and welcome ruin—Even now contemned as I have been scorned as I am I would fain use lenity and feel kindness I will take retribution—no power shall prevent me—but I would take it tenderly
Oh shame upon you man—Tenderly—Can the mischief and the misery in which you have involved yourself and so many others can treachery brutal force bruises imprisonment and rape be coupled with tenderness If you have any spark of noble feeling yet remaining in your heart cherish it but if not speak truth to yourself Do not attempt to varnish such foul and detestable guilt with fair words
I would advise not varnish What I have done I have done—I know my doom—I am already branded Opprobrium has set her indelible mark upon me I am indexed to all eternity
You mistake Clifton—Beware—You mistake You mistake It is impossible to imagine Fairfax the energy
with which these exclamations burst from her—It was a fleeting but false cordial to my heart Of all your errors that is the most fatal Whatever rooted prejudices or unjust laws may assert to the contrary we are accountable only for what we do not for what we have done Clifton beware Mark me—I owe you no enmity for the past I combat only with the present
Do not delude me with shadows Bring your doctrine to the test if you bear me no enmity if what I have done can be forgotten and what I would do— Madam——Anna——Once more and for the last time—take me
It cannot be—It cannot be
Then since you will shew no mercy expect none
Your menaces are vain man I tell you again I do not fear you I will beg no pity from you—I dare endure more than you dare inflict
I am not to be braved from my purpose The basis of nature is not more unshaken High as your courage is you will find a spirit in me that can mount still higher
Courage Oh shame Name it not Where was your courage when you decoyed my defender from me The man you durst not face—Where is he—What have you done with him—Laura has given you my letter—Should your practices have reached his life—But no It cannot be An act so very vile as that not even the errors of your mind could reach—Courage—Even
me you durst not face in freedom Your courage employed a band of ruffians against me singly a woman too over whom your manly valour would tower But there is no such mighty difference as prejudice supposes Courage has neither sex nor form it is an energy of mind of which your base proceedings shew I have infinitely the most This bids me stand firm and meet your worst daring undauntedly This be assured will make me the victor I tell you man it places me above you
Urge me no more—Beware of me You have driven me mad Do not tempt a desperate man Resistance will be destruction to you no matter that to me it be perdition My account is
closed and I am reconciled to ruin—You shall be mine—Though hell gape for me you shall be mine—Once more beware I warn you not to contend
Why man what would you do Is murder your intent—While I have life I fear you not—And think you that brutality can taint the dead Nay think you that were you endowed with the superior force which the vain name of man supposes and could accomplish the basest purpose of your heart I would falsely take guilt to myself or imagine I had received the smallest blemish from impurity which never reached my mind That I would lament or shun the world or walk in open day oppressed by shame I did not merit No—For you perhaps I might weep
but for myself I would not shed a tear Not a tear—You cannot injure me—I am above you—If you mean to deal me blows or death here I stand ready to suffer but till I am dead or senseless I defy you to do me harm—Bethink you Clifton I see the struggles of your soul there is virtue among them Your eye speaks the reluctance of your hand Your heart spurns at the mischief your passions would perpetrate—Remember—Unless you have recourse to some malignant some cruel some abominable means you never shall accomplish so base a purpose—But you cannot be so guilty Clifton—You cannot—I know not by what perverse fatality you have been misled for you have a mind fitted for the sublimest emanations
of virtue—No you cannot—There is something within you that lays too strong a hand upon you Malice so black is beyond you Your very soul abhors its own guilt and is therefore driven frantic—Oh Clifton You that were born to be the champion of truth the instructor of error and the glory of the earth—My heart yearns over you—Awake—Rise—Be a man
Divine angelic creature—Fool madman villain
With these exclamations I instantly burst from the chamber—Conviction astonishment remorse tenderness all the passions that could subdue the human soul rushed upon me till I could support no more
Of all the creatures God ever formed she is the most wonderful—I have repeated something like her words but had you seen her gestures her countenance her eye her glowing indignant fortitude at one moment and her kindling comprehensive benevolence the next like me you would have felt an irresistible impulse to catch some spark of a flame so heavenly
And now what is to be done I am torn by contending passions—If I release her there is an end to all except to my disgrace which will be everlasting—Give her to the arms of Henley
—I cannot bear it Fairfax—I cannot bear it—Death racks infamy itself to such a thought were infinitude of bliss
What can I do She says truly conquest over her by any but brutal means is impossible—Shall I be brutal—And more brutal even than my own ruffian agents
She has magnanimity—But what have those cyphers of beings who call themselves her relations Shall they mount the dunghill of their vanity clap their wings and exult as if they too had conquered a Clifton Even the villain Mac Fane would not fail to scout at me Nay the very gobetween the convenient chambermaid herself forgetting the lightness of her own heels would bless
herself and claim her share in the miraculous virtue of the sex What Become the scoff of the teatable the bugbear of the bedchamber and the standing jest of the tavern—I will return this instant Fairfax and put her boasted strength and courage to the proof—Madness—I forget that nothing less than depriving her of sense can be effectual She knows her strong hold victory never yet was gained by man singly over woman who was not willing to be vanquished
I will not yield her up Fairfax—She never shall be Henleys—Again and again she never shall—I dared not meet him—So she told me—Ha—Dare not—I will still devise a means—I will have my revenge—This vaunted
Henley then shall know how much I dare—I will conquer—Should I be obliged to come like Jove to Semele in flames and should we both be reduced to ashes in the conflict I will enjoy her—Let one urn hold our dust and when the fire has purified it of its angry and opposing particles perhaps it may mingle in peace
C CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
IT shall not be—She shall not escape me thus—I will not endure this insufferable this contemptible recantation of my wrongs Fear is beneath me and what have I to hope I have made misery certain I have paid the price of
destruction and will hug it to my heart I know how often I have prevaricated and have loitered with revenge but I have not lost the flame it burns still and never shall expire
The night at Brompton though a night of storms and evil augury was heaven to the one I have just passed Sleep and rest have forsaken me Tis long since I closed my eyes I know not indeed when but last night I did not attempt it I traversed my room opened my windows shut them again listened to the discontented monotony of the watchman without hearing him thought over my neverforgotten injuries my vengeance and all the desolation that is to follow and having ended began again
There were shrieks and cries of murder in the street about midnight and this was the only music by which I remember to have been roused But it was momentary My reveries returned and scenes of horror rose more swarming dun and ghastly
My waking dreams are eternal—Well so I would have them—They prolong revenge—I would have him by the throat for ages—Him—Henley—Would grapple with him would stab and be stabbed not in the fictions of a torturing fancy but arm to arm steel to steel poison to poison Ay did I not know he would refuse my fair challenge hero though he be and cased in innocence I would instantly fly to let him
loose upon me that I might turn and tear him—
Why that were delectable—And can it not be—Can no sufferings move no wrongs provoke no taunts stir him to resentment Is he God or is he man To me he is demon legion and has possessed me wholly
Liar that I am How came I to forget the beauteous sorceress with whom I found him leagued I have heard them called angels of light but I have known them only fiends They goad me with their virtues mock at my phrensy defy my rage and though surrounded by rape destruction and despair sleep and smile while I wake and howl
Injury and insult are busy with me This sister of mine is in town at Sir Arthurs As she has made the journey I may expect a visit from her soon but she shall find no admission here I want no more tormentors
As I foreboded she has just been and has behaved in character She would take no denial from the valet he was but an infant to the Amazon she would herself see if I were at home and in she came The fellow does not want cunning and he ran up stairs before her and called out aloud purposely for me to hear—
You may see madam if you please the door is
locked and my master has taken the key with him
He knew I was determined not to see her and while he designedly made all the clatter he could and placed himself before the entrance I took the means he had devised She came turned him aside examined the door pushed violently against it and I believe would willingly have broken it open but finding her good intentions I set my shoulder to the panel taking care not to impede the light through the keyhole which my valet tells me was inspected by her She ruminated a few seconds and then went away incredulous and high in indignation
Well—I sought for warfare and it has found me My former encounters
it seems were but the skirmishes of a partisan this is a deadly and decisive battle
It is now five oclock and I have had a stirring morning So much the better action is relief A message came to me from Lord FitzAllen desiring to speak with me I had an inclination not to have gone but reflecting further I determined to obey his summons
However when I sent up my name I desired to know if my sister were there and was answered in the negative I then made my bow to his lordship taking care to inform him that my sister behaved with great impropriety and that I was resolved not to see her lest I too should forget that respect due to my
family and myself which she had violated The peer began with circumlocutory hints concerning the elopement—
An unaccountable affair—No tidings had yet arrived—Surmises and rumours of a very strange and dishonourable nature were whispered—Mischief rape nay even murder were dreaded
I refused to interpret any of these insinuations as applicable to myself At last his lordship after many efforts said he had a favour to beg of me which he hoped I should not think unreasonable I desired him to inform me what this favour was and put some firmness in my manner that his lordship might see I was not in a temper to suffer an insult
He answered for his own part he had no doubts he knew my family and had always affirmed I could not act unworthy of the gentleman But for the peace of mind of Sir Arthur and the other relations of the young lady he would esteem it an obligation done to him if I would declare upon my honour that I knew nothing of her elopement of the place she has been conveyed to or where she is at present
I then retorted upon his lordship that the preface to this request entirely precluded compliance that those who whispered and spread surmises and rumours must be answerable for the consequences of their own officiousness and that with respect to myself I should
certainly under such circumstances refuse to answer to interrogatories
My tone was not very conciliatory and his lordship knew not whether to be angry or pleased But while he was pondering I thought proper to make my exit and leave him to settle the contest between his pride and his puerility as well as he was able
At my return I found a letter from my sister which I will neither answer nor open I have my fill of fury and want no more
Damnation on their insolence They have been making application to the office at BowStreet A request has just been sent me a very soft and civil one
it is true from the sitting magistrate that I would do him the honour to come and speak a word with him on an affair that concerned a very great and respectable family I returned for answer that I was engaged and that I should notice no such messages but that if any man great or small had to complain of me the law understood its duty and that I should be readily found at all times
Whether this be the motion of my superb and zealous sister or of the arrogant peer is more than I can divine But I shall know some day and shall then perhaps strike a balance
I have no doubt that emissaries and scouts are abroad and that I am watched I was this evening to have met Mac Fane at the Shakespeare but I
will not go Yet as it is pay night the hungry scoundrel must not be disappointed I will therefore write a note to him and invite him to come and sup with me He will be an agreeable companion But even his company is better at this moment than solitude
I will not let my servant carry the note directly to him for if they have their spies in the field that might be dangerous He shall take it to the Mount coffeehouse and there get a chairman to convey it in safety I will tell Mac Fane likewise to come through the shop door for I am only in lodgings and to step immediately out of a hackneycoach I laugh at their counterplots and wish I had nothing more to disturb me than the fear of being
detected by any exertion of their cunning even though my kind sister be appointed their commander in chief
C CLIFTON
P S
They might have served the cause in which they have engaged more effectually had their proceedings been less violent and offensive They do but nerve me in resolution The less public they had made the affair the more they would have shewn their generalship If they be thus determined to brand me can they suppose that my vengeance shall not outstrip theirs I own I am perplexed about the means—Invention fails me I have debated whether I should call in the aid of Mac Fane but the idea is too detestable—
No I would rather take a pair of pistols and dispatch her first and myself next than expose her beauties to such ruffian despicable rascals—Beside I would have her will concerned—And how to conquer that—I shall be driven I foresee I shall to some unheardof act of desperation—Drugs are a mean a pitiful expedient not to mention that she is aware of them and uses a kind of caution which it would be difficult to overcome She reserves the meal of one day for the next after having suffered Laura to eat her part so that inanity sleep or other effects if produced would first appear in the maid This perhaps is one of the reasons by which she is induced still to keep her and were she removed and could suspect it were for
this purpose I am convinced she would eat no more—No—She must be fairly told the deep despair of my mind and if that will not move her why then—Death
LOUISA CLIFTON TO HER BROTHER COKE CLIFTON
GrosvenorStreet
WHERE is Anna St Ives—Where is my friend Where is the youth to whom you owe existence—Man of revenge answer me Oh God O God—Is it possible—Can it be that you Coke Clifton the son
of my mother the hoped for friend of my heart the expected champion of virtue can turn aside to such base and pitiful vice such intolerable such absurd such deep hypocrisy And why What cause Is this the reward of their uncommon virtues
And you Oh man Did they not labour hourly incessantly with the purity of saints and the ardour of angels to do you good Was it not their sole employment their first duty and their dearest hope Did they ever deviate Did they not return urbanity for arrogance kindness for contempt and life for blows—Can you Clifton dare you be thus wicked And will you persist—
If you have brought them to harm
if your practices have reached their lives earth does not contain so foul so wicked a monster—
Surely this cannot be Surely you have some drop of mothers blood in you and cannot be actuated by a spirit so wholly demon
What shall I do What shall I say How shall I awaken a soul so steeped in iniquity so dead to excellence so obstinate in ill—Clifton—You were not formed for this You have a mind that might have been the fit companion of divine natures—It may be still—Awake View the light and turn from crimes pollution and abhorrence to virtue love and truth
Know you not the beaming charity of
her whom you persecute if—Oh God—Surely this is vain terror Surely Anna St Ives is still among the living—
Clifton once again I say remember the untainted benevolence of her soul Is it can it be forgotten by you Which of your good qualities was ever forgotten by her Hear her describe them in her own language
These are a few of the commendations with which her descriptions abound Commendations of you oh man of mischief and mistake They are quotations from her letters Read them remember them think on all she has done for you all she has said to you and all you have made her suffer
What shall I say My fears are infinite my hopes few my anguish intolerable—For the love of God brother do not rob the world of two people who were born to be its light and pride Do not be this diabolic instrument of passion and error If they still have being restore them to the human race—You know not the wrong you
do—Tis heinous tis hateful wickedness Can a mind like yours feel no momentary remorse no glow of returning virtue no sudden resolution to perform a great and glorious act of justice on yourself
If you value your souls peace hear me Awake from this guilty dream and be once more the brother of the agonizing
L CLIFTON
LOUISA CLIFTON
TO MRS WENBOURNE
GrosvenorStreet
DEAR MADAM
YOU have been kindly pleased to request I would give you some account of the means we are pursuing in hopes to obtain traces that should lead to a discovery of the very strange affair by
which we are all perplexed and afflicted I am sorry to say that I can do little more than narrate the distress of the various parties who think themselves interested in the loss of the dear friend of my heart and of the youth so well worthy of her affections
Of the grief of Sir Arthur madam you have yourself been a witness nor does it seem to abate I should wonder indeed if it could for though I wish to cherish hope I own that the secrecy and silence with which this black stratagem has been carried into effect are truly terrifying
Highly as I esteem and reverence the virtues of young Mr Henley I have been free enough to own to you madam I never was any admirer of the qualities
and proceedings of his father Justice however obliges me to say that he at present expresses a regret so deep for the loss of his son as to prove that he has a considerable sense of his worth Money has been the sole object of his efforts yet though his son had so great a sum in his possession at the time he disappeared he seems to think but little of the money compared to the loss which is indeed so infinitely more deplorable
While I live I shall love and esteem Mrs Clarke and her niece Peggy whose kind hearts overflow with affection both for my Anna St Ives and young Mr Henley Well indeed may Peggy remember poor Frank He was her saviour in the hour of her
distress She takes no rest herself nor will she suffer her husband or her brother to take any They are all continually on the watch and to do the men justice they do not need a spur
Mr Webb her brother with whose unfortunate history I suppose you are acquainted gives proofs of zeal which are very affecting The tears have frequently gushed from me at seeing the virtuous anxiety of his mind and at recollecting what that mind was how and by whom it was preserved and that its whole activity is now exerted with the strong and cheering hope of returning some portion of the good it has received
I know madam how great your sorrow
must be as well as that of all the once happy relations of a young lady of endowments and virtues so rare Yet deep as this sorrow is I think it scarcely can exceed the anguish I feel convinced as I am that my mistaken my unhappy brother is the cause of this much dreaded misery
I told you madam I would go to him I have been and could gain no admission I have written and have received no answer These circumstances added to the perturbation of mind which was so discoverable in him when he was last at RoseBank do but confirm my fears of his guilt
But as it becomes us to act and not to lament while there is any possibility
that action should give us relief I joined Mr Abimelech Henley in his opinion that we ought to apply to the civil power for redress We first indeed prevailed on Lord FitzAllen to speak to Mr Clifton but it was to no purpose my brother behaved as I prophesied he would with disdainful silence I own I had some hopes that my letter would have touched his heart I am sorry to find they were so ill▪founded
Mr Clifton having refused even to deny his knowledge of the affair to his Lordship he consented that application should be made to a civil magistrate But Lord FitzAllen is strangely prejudiced and is persuaded or affects to be that Mr Clifton being a gentleman is
incapable of a dishonourable act and that young Mr Henley and Anna St Ives have eloped The sum of money Mr Henley had in his possession confirms him in this opinion and he has several times half persuaded Sir Arthur and some others to be of his sentiments
Hearing this and finding no positive accusation and that nothing but surmise could be preferred against Mr Clifton whose character was understood to be highly vindictive the magistrate refused to do any thing more than send a polite request that he would come and speak in his presence to the parties concerned
My brother refused in terms of menace and defiance and we returned
home hopeless yet again having recourse to watching the door of my brothers lodgings as has been done for these several days But we have learnt nothing And what indeed can we learn Mr Webb and his brotherinlaw have twice followed him on foot to the livery stables and have seen him mount his horse and ride out of town but the speed with which he went quickly took him out of sight
The roads he chose were in opposite directions but that they might easily be and yet lead to the same place They are out at present for their industry is unwearied
It is in vain to think of pursuing my brother on horseback for he must infallibly see his pursuer He went one time
over Westminsterbridge and the other through Tyburnturnpike up to Paddington Their present project is the first time he goes out to waylay both these roads and to get assistants Mr Webb is a swift runner but the chance of success I am afraid is very small indeed However it becomes them and us and indeed every body not to desist till the whole of this dark transaction be brought to light
I am madam c L CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London DoverStreet
WHY ay He who opens the floodgates of mischief is necessarily in most danger of being swept away by the torrent—I have drunken deeply of ruin and soon shall have my fill
You warned me to beware of this raven you told me he scented carrion—
I laughed at your prophecy—It is fulfilled—I am a gull—The fleeced cheated despicable gull of the infernal villain Mac Fane
It was right that I should be loaded with every species of contempt for myself I have been the fool the gudgeon the ineffable ass to lose a sum of money to him which to pay would be destruction—I begin to hate myself with most strange inveteracy Could I meet such another fellow I would spit in his face—Fairfax it is true—By hell I hold myself in most rooted and ample antipathy
I find I have strangely mistaken my own character and talents—I once thought to have driven the world before
me and to have whipped opposition into immediate compliance but it seems I am myself one of the very sorry wretches at whom I was so all alive and ready to gibe and spurn These are odd and unaccountable things And it appears that I am a very poor creature A most indubitable driveller The twinbrother of imbecility Ay the counterpart and compeer of Edward St Ives and the tool of the most barefaced of cheats as well as his familiar—Well I have lived long enough to make the discovery and it is now high time to depart
I wrote to you but yesterday but events hastily tread on each others heels and if I do not relate them now I never
shall I told you I expected the gambler to supper by my own invitation—Ay ay—I am a very Solomon—
I dined at home I knew not indeed to what extremes the St Ives hunters might proceed or whether they would make accusation upon oath sufficient to authorise a magistrate in granting a warrant to bring me before him but the attempt must have been impotent and abortive I therefore determined to brave them however I heard no more of them or their suspicions
As I sat ruminating on past events on my sister and her epistle and particularly on the zeal with which Anna St Ives appealed to the letter written
by her which I had received from Laura my curiosity was so far excited that at last I determined to read them both I own Fairfax they both moved me—This sister of mine enraged as I am against her has somehow found the art of making herself respected Her zeal has character and efficacy in it I mean persuasion I could not resist some of the sensations she intended to inspire She cited passages from the letters of her friend that were daggers to me At the very time I was seeking to quarrel with Anna she angellike was incessant in my praise—And such praises Fairfax— There was no resisting it—She thought generously nobly ay sublimely of me while
my irascible jealousy false pride and vindictive spirit were eager only to find cause of offence
And yet I know not—I cannot keep my mind to a point Surely I had cause of offence real cause—Surely the retribution I sought had justice in it—She could not be wholly blameless—No—That would indeed be distraction
I then ventured to read the letter of Anna—On paper or in speech she is the fame energetic awful and affecting
While I was reading this last Mac Fane entered and soon put an end to my meditations Did I tell you I had been fool enough to invite him to supper—He had not been with me half an hour before I was most intolerably weary of his company
After having vapoured of the feats of himself and the scowling rascal his colleague to remind me of my high obligations to them and talking as usual with most bitter malevolence against Henley he soon began to descant on the old subject gaming—To ask a madman why he is mad were vain I was importuned by his jargon—
He had been pigeoned only last night of no less than seven hundred pounds
Repetitions imprecations and lies all of the same kind succeeded as fast as he could utter them
I know all this ought to have put me upon my guard and I know too that it did not I believe I had some lurking vanity in my mind a persuasion that I could beat him at picquet I was
weary both of myself and him was primed for mischief and cared not of what kind If you ask me for any better reason why knowing him as I did I suffered myself to be the tool of this fellow I can only say I have none to give
I ordered my own servant to fetch half a dozen packs of cards and imagined this precaution was some security What will not men imagine when their passions are afloat and reason is flown
To give you the history of how I was led on from one act of idiotism to another or how after having lost one thousand I could be lunatic enough to lose a second and after a second a third and so on to a tenth is more than my present temper of mind will permit It is
quite sufficient to tell you that I have ruined myself and that there is not upon the face of the earth a fellow I so thoroughly despise as Coke Clifton no not even Mac Fane himself Below the lowest am I fallen for I am his dupe nay his companion and what is worse his debtor It is time I were out of the world—So miserable a being does not crawl upon its surface
It is the very heyday of mischief and I must abroad among it The exact manner of the catastrophe I cannot foresee but it must be tragical I have something brooding in my mind the outlines of a conclusion which rather pleases me I have sworn to avenge myself of Anna disinherit my sister and never to pay Mac Fane These oaths
must be kept Anna must fall If she will but deign to live afterward she shall be my heir And for myself I know how to find a ready quietus
My mind since this last affair is better reconciled to its destiny and even less disturbed than before for previous to this there seemed to be some bare possibility of a generous release on my part and a more generous forgetfulness of injuries on theirs But now all is over I have but to punish my opponents a little and myself much and having punished expire
C CLIFTON
P S
I have not paid the scoundrel his thousand pounds He proposed a
bond for the whole on which he said he could raise money This I was determined not to give and told him he must wait a few days till I had consulted my lawyer and looked into my affairs and I would then give him a determinate answer He was beginning to assume the contemptible airs of a bully but I was in no temper to bear the least insult The real rage of my look silenced the mechanical ferocity of his I bade him remember I could hit a china plate and that I should think proper to take my own mode of payment He then changed his tone and began to commend his soul to Satan in a thousand different forms if he had ever won a hundred pounds at
a sitting in his whole life before I sneered in his face shewed him the door and bade him good night and he walked quietly away
LOUISA CLIFTON TO MRS WENBOURNE
Grosvenor Street
DEAR MADAM
AS I have taken upon myself the painful duty of informing you of all that passes relative to this unhappy affair it becomes me to be punctual It is afflicting to own that our agitation and distress instead of abating are increased
Finding it impossible to gain a sight of my brother I determined to attempt to question his valet Mr Webb received my instructions accordingly watched him to some distance from the house and delivered a message from me that if he would come to me I would present him with ten guineas
He made no hesitation but followed Mr Webb immediately
Either he is very artful or very ignorant of this affair One circumstance excepted he appears to know nothing
I promised him any reward any sum he should himself name if he could but give us such information as might lead to the recovery of our lost friends but he protested very solemnly he had none to give except that he owns having
been employed by his master to inveigle the lad away who wrote the anonymous letter and whom Mr Clifton by practising on the lads credulity and gratitude sent to France
The valet indeed acknowledges his master is exceedingly disturbed in mind that he does not sleep nor even go to bed except sometimes tossing himself on it with his clothes on and almost instantly rising again and that he has sent for his attorney to make his will
I will not endeavour to paint my sensations at hearing this account I will only add that another incident has happened which gives them additional acuteness
I believe madam you have heard both my brother and my Anna speak of
and describe a young French nobleman who paid his addresses to her and who was the occasion of the rash leap into the lake by which Mr Clifton endangered his life This gentleman Count de Beaunoir is arrived in London and has this morning paid a visit to Sir Arthur St Ives
He enquired first and eagerly after my friend with whom like all who know her he is in raptures Sir Arthur forgetting his character and the apparently rodomontade but to him very serious manner in which he had declared himself her champion told him the whole story as far as it is known to us not omitting to mention Mr Clifton as the person on whom all our suspicions
fell and relating to him the full grounds of those suspicions
The astonishment of the Count occasioned him to listen with uncommon attention to what he heard and he closed the narrative of Sir Arthur by affirming it was all true He was convinced beyond contradiction of its truth for he had himself brought over the lad whom Mr Clifton had sent with pretended dispatches to a friend of his in Paris
The lad it appears suspecting all was not right and finding no probability of returning but on the contrary that he was watched and even refused a passport had applied to the Count through the medium of his servants with whom he had formerly been acquainted to
protect and afford him the means of returning to England
The lad was sent for his story heard and he was then questioned concerning Anna St Ives and he had heard enough of the affair from Mr Abimelech Henley and from the servants to know that the proposed match between Mr Clifton and Anna was broken off and that she refused to admit his visits When Count de Beaunoir last saw Sir Arthur at Paris he had assured him very seriously that should ever Anna St Ives find herself disengaged and he knew it he would instantly make her a tender of his hand and fortune and he had no sooner heard the lads story than he determined immediately to make his intended journey to England
My heart shudders while I relate it but I dread lest it should be a fatal journey for him or my brother or both For he declared to Sir Arthur without hesitation he would wait on Mr Clifton directly and oblige him either to produce Anna St Ives or meet him in the field
Wretched folly Destructive error When will men cease to think that vice and virtue ought to meet on equal terms and that injury can be atoned by blood
The Count had left his address with Sir Arthur and the moment I heard what had passed I flew to his lodgings He was not at home and I waited above an hour At last he came and I attempted to shew him both the folly and
wickedness of the conduct he was pursuing
He listened to me with the utmost politeness paid me a thousand compliments acknowledged the truth of every thing I said but very evidently determined to act in a manner directly opposite I very assiduously laboured to make him promise upon his honour he would not seek redress by duelling but in vain He answered by evasion with all possible desire to have obliged me but with a foregone conclusion that it could not be
Pardon me madam for writing a narrative so melancholy but sincerity is necessary intelligence might have come to you in a distorted form and might have produced much worse effects For
my own part I have no other mode of conduct but that of writing and of speaking the simple truth being convinced there is no shade of disguise artifice or falsehood that is not immoral in principle and pernicious in practice
I have been very busy I have sent for the lad whom the count brought over with him and have made enquiries The answers he gave me all tend to confirm our former suspicions He has related the story at length of the manner in which he was inveigled away and prevailed on to go to France
I next questioned him concerning his aunt and he knows nothing of her has never heard from her and is astonished at what can have become of her He
means however to go this evening to a relations house where he thinks he is certain he shall hear of her and has then promised to come and let me know—But to what purpose We shall find she has been sent out of the way by Mr Clifton and what further information will that afford None except to confirm what needs no confirming except to shew the blindness craft and turpitude of his mind
I am dear madam c L CLIFTON
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London DoverStreet
SO Fairfax you have suffered the lad to escape you cautioned and entreated as you were You know I suppose by what means and with whom he is at present—Well well—It is no matter—I have quarrels enough on hand and
enemies enough—I would fain die in peace with somebody—I forgive you—I suppose you did your best
It is exceedingly possible that this may be the last letter you will ever receive from me Remember me now and then Should Henley and Anna St Ives survive me let them know I was not so entirely blind to their worth as they might perhaps suppose Shew them my letters if you will I care not who sees them now Let the truth be told I shall be deaf enough to censure
I have just had a visit from the crazy count a threatening one A challenge has passed and we are to meet tomorrow
So it is agreed but I doubt whether I shall keep the appointment If there
be one spark of resentment in the soul of Henley it is possible I may fail I mean to give him the first chance It is his by right and why should not I do right even to him once in my life This farrago of folly this pride of birth and riches and I know not what else lumber is very contemptible
Fairfax the present state of my thoughts forces more than one truth upon me But what have I to do with truth in a world from which I learned so much error that it was impossible for me to exist in it These wise people should leave us fools to wrangle be wretched and cut each others throats as we list without intermeddling tis dangerous But Truth is a zealot Wisdom will be crying
in the streets and Folly meeting her seldom fails to deal her blow
My mind is made up my affairs are settled my lawyer has written out my will and it is signed You will find yourself mentioned in it Fairfax I have nominated my sister my executor and Anna St Ives my heir I have been reading Louisas letter again it is full of pathos She has more understanding than I have been willing to allow and I have relented She is not forgotten in my will I would not have her think of me with everlasting hatred
I know not how it is Fairfax but I feel more compunction at present than I ever remember to have felt before I am grown into self▪contempt and the haughty notions which were the support
of my high and sometimes arrogant conduct are faded I could think only of Coke Clifton and I now know Coke Clifton to be a very wretched dolt
Be not deceived by my present tone make no false predictions in favour either of myself or Anna St Ives Despair and fate are not more fixed than is my plan My horse will presently be at the door I shall mount him the moment I have ended this letter and shall proceed directly to Anna There after all is ended the enchantment too shall end and the misventurous lady and her imprisoned knight shall both be set free
Should Henley urged by despair to seek revenge accept my defiance and meet me in the field the conflict must be fierce and such as might inspire terror
To say the truth were it not to prove myself his equal perhaps his master and vanquisher I would not lift my hand against his life It would be some relief to my soul to fall by his arm He is a noble fellow and I have done him wrong Would he or Anna but charitably strike I would die blessing them eased by the expiatory blow Perhaps they are the only two beings for whom I ever could have had the same admiration and if what they tell me be true admiration continued always ripens into love They shewed affection toward me and would I believe have loved me But we did not understand each other and the mistake has been mutually fatal—Would I had never injured them—But it is vain—The die is cast—We are all fated—
Having accomplished my revenge and accomplish it I will they cannot live and not be miserable They must curse my hated memory and blaspheme against my honour—It cannot be otherwise—Let our grave therefore be glorious They are brave spirits and will mock my power even to the last I love their high courage Perhaps they shall find I have a kindred soul—Oh would they die forgiving me—
I know not well whither my thoughts are wandering—They perhaps may refuse to die—They may say it is their duty to live even though doomed to be wretched—I know them—What they think they will act—Well well—Let destiny dispose of events—To me all chances are welcome all are alike
As to this count should Henley refuse vengeance I owe him no mercy Twas he who prompted me to the frantic act that first made me the debtor of the man I have most injured I almost contemn a foe so insignificant—Not that he is deficient in bravery or skill—But what is he—What are his wrongs—Tis lunacy not anger rankling at his heart—Or if it were—The hungry wolfdog is no fit combatant for the famished lion
C CLIFTON
P S
Fairfax a new terror has come over me I told you of the letters of my sister and Anna and described something of the effect they produced upon
me You may remember I read them previous to my last damned interview with the villain Mac Fane I recollect having laid the letter of Anna upon the table and that it continued lying there for some time after his entrance I had my eye upon it and meant not to put it in my pocket lest it should be left there but lock it up as soon as I moved—I forgot it—The letter is lost—I have searched every where have enquired have cursed have threatened unheardof punishment to my scoundrel if he have purloined it but to no effect He protests he knows nothing of it and he looks as if he spoke truth—It contained a secret relative to Henley— Should Mac Fane have taken it up furtively as I suppose such thieves are always on the
watch— Why if he should— Hell hounds—Bloodthirsty vultures—If so— I will be gone this instant—It is the very era of horror
FRAGMENT
WHETHER what I am about to write may ever be found or whether I the writer may ever be heard of more are both very doubtful events It may be of some use to mankind should this brief narrative hereafter be read as it may tend to exemplify the progress of
the passions and to shew after having begun in error the excesses of which they are capable I speak under the supposition that this paper may fall into the hands of persons who know more of Mr Clifton and of the affair to which I allude than even I myself at present know or if I did than I have time and opportunity to relate
With that hope and addressing myself to such persons I will endeavour as long as I have the means and am able accurately to recount the particulars of what has befallen me from the time I was first beset to the latest minute of my remaining where I am whether my removal happen by death or release of which though apparently beyond hope it would certainly be wrong to despair
Oh Anna St Ives Should thine eye ever glance over this paper ignorant as I am of thy destiny though too well assured it is a fearful one think not while I seem to narrate those incidents only which have happened to myself that I am attentive to self alone that I have forgotten the nobler duties of which we have so often sweetly discoursed or that the memory of thee and thy sufferings has ever been absent from my heart—But why bid thee be just To whom didst thou ever do a wilful wrong Oh pardon me—Live on shouldst thou still be permitted to live and labour with redoubled ardour in the great cause of truth Despair not Heave not a sigh drop not a tear but sacrifice thy private ills to public good
Before I begin it is necessary to notice that I had the sum of eight thousand pounds about me in bankbills for it is this circumstance which seems to have insured my death Our walk was to have ended by four oclock and the money to have been left at the bankers as we returned I cannot however acquit myself of neglect I ought not to have forgotten that money under our present wretched system is the grand stimulus to vice that accidents very little dreamed of daily happen and that procrastination is always an error
As I was walking with the lady whose name I have just mentioned in some fields between Kensington and Brompton
we saw Mr Clifton pass on horseback and I believe in less than a minute a man assault him and fire a pistol with an intent to rob him as I then supposed
I ran to his aid and immediately after the flight of this real or imaginary robber I was myself attacked and laid senseless by a blow I received on the side of my head which as there was no person in front able to strike at me must have come from behind
I saw no more for that time of Mr Clifton The blow was very violent and is still severely felt
When I recovered my senses I found my arms confined by a straight waistcoat such as are used to secure maniacs I endeavoured to call for assistance but the man who had charge of me for
there were several thrust his thumb in the larynx forced open my mouth and gagged me He has twice had occasion as he supposed to use me thus and both times with such violence as seemingly to require the utmost effort mind could make to recover respiration the thrust of his thumb was so merciless and the sensation of strangling so severe
They brought me to a house thoroughly prepared for confinement It is an old but heavy building walled round and provided with bars bolts chains massy locks and every precaution to impede escape
I was led up one pair of stairs to apartments consisting of two chambers the one roomy the other much smaller in which last is a bed
As soon as I was safe in the room the master man among them who as I have since learned is a professed keeper of the insane ungagged me took off the straight waistcoat and then they all left me
I stood I know not how long in that stupor of amazement which the scene and the crowding conjectures of imagination necessarily produced
At length I roused my mind to more active enquiry I then set myself to inspect the apartments In the largest there was a fire place and a fire but neither shovel tongs nor poker except a small stick as a substitute for a poker with which I certainly could not knock a man down The furniture consisted of a chair a table a broken lookingglass and an old picture in panel of
the sacrifice of Isaac with Abrahams knife at his throat It stares me now in the face and is a strong emblem of my own situation except that my saving angel seems wanting
In the other room exclusive of the bed and its appurtenances there was a second chair which with an old walnuttree clothespress was its whole inventory
In this room was a closet with several shelves almost to the ceiling the topmost of them so high as but just to be reached by me when standing on a chair I swept my hand along the shelves and found them as I thought empty
I then examined the windows There were only two one to each room the
remainder having been walled up and these each of them provided with thick iron bars so near to each other as to admit but of a small part of the face passing between them There was a casement to the front room only and I found a piece of paper tied to the handle of it on which was written—
You are closely watched if you attempt to make any signals or shout or take any other means to inform persons you are here your lodging will be changed to one much more disagreeable
Having nothing with which I could employ myself except my thoughts and these flowing in abundance I sat meditating and undisturbed till it was almost dark A little before five oclock as I
suppose perhaps later for I forgot to say my watch and purse had been taken from me with a promise that they should be returned I heard the sound of distant bolts and locks that belong to the outer gates and doors and soon afterward of men in loud conversation
The keeper and two of his assistants came up to me and once more brought the straight waistcoat into which they bade me thrust my arms I hesitated and told them I did not choose to have my arms confined To which the keeper replied—
B my b eyes None of your jabber or Ill fetch you another rum one Ill knock you off the roost again
From this speech I conclude it was he
who gave me the blow with the bludgeon when I was first secured
As he said this he raised his bludgeon with which kind of weapon they were all three armed and had locked the door after them There was no remedy and I obeyed
As soon as they had confined my arms they left me and remembering the banknotes which I had in my fob I began to fear they had come to the knowledge of this circumstance though I could not imagine by what means Some short time afterward perhaps a quarter of an hour the bolts and chains of my door again began to rattle and one person singly came in It was dark and I could not distinguish his features but I
recollected his form it was the gambler Mac Fane the sound of his voice presently put it beyond a doubt
Without speaking a word he came up to me and made a violent blow at me I perceived it coming sprang upward and received it on the tip of my shoulder his hand driving up to my neck From his manner I guess it hurt him at least as much as me for his passion immediately became outrageous and he began cursing kicking spitting at me and treating me with various other indignities which are wholly unworthy of remembrance
His passion was so loud and vehement that the keeper hearing him came up Just as he entered Mac
Fane struck me again and with more effect for he knocked me down and was proceeding to kick me in a manner that might perhaps have been fatal had not the keeper interfered
I said not one word the whole time nor as I recollect uttered any sound whatever and it was with difficulty that the keeper who is even a more powerful man than himself could get him away
I was once more left in solitude and darkness and thus sat with fresh subjects for reflection ruminating on this worthless Mac Fane my rencontre with him and Mr Clifton the extreme malignancy of his temper and all the connecting circumstances that are
allied to events which I cannot now relate
About eight oclock my door once more opened and a little boy of fourteen years of age as he tells me brought me a light and some food The boy imagined me to be mad and entered the room with great reluctance his master the keeper standing at the door cursing him threatening him with the horsewhip and obliging him to do as he was bidden which was to release me from the strait waistcoat spread a threadbare halfdirty napkin over the table set the plates and wait till I had eaten The trepidation of the poor boy at setting my arms at liberty was extreme
The door was not open but ajar and secured by three chains between which
the boy crept the keeper standing and looking on with one arm leaning on the middle chain and his head only in the chamber
I observed that the boy had an intelligent countenance though considerably under the influence of fear with strong marks of kindness in it but stronger of dejection
The furniture the napkin knives and forks and every circumstance denoted the poverty of the man who is my jailer and his proceedings proved there scarcely could be any guilt from which he would start to remove this supposed evil The thought could not escape me nor the jeopardy in which I should stand should the money I had in my possession be discovered
I ate what was brought me and endeavoured by the mildness and cheerfulness of my look to inspire the boy with confidence I have no doubt but he was surprised to see so docile a madman not having yet ever seen any and being from description exceedingly terrified at the idea of the trade to which he has been forcibly apprenticed I spoke to him two or three times apparently to ask him for the trifles he could reach me but in reality with another view I likewise addressed him two or three other times in dumbshow with as much mildness and meaning in my look as circumstances so insignificant would permit
The effect my behaviour had upon
him was very evident and after beginning in fear and confusion he left me in something like hope and tranquillity My prison door was locked the candle taken away and I left in darkness I was no more molested during that night
My thoughts were too busy to suffer me to sleep I sat without moving I know not how long The extreme stillness of all around me added to the unity of the gloom and produced a state of mind which gives wholesome exercise to fortitude Deep as I was in thought I remember having been two or three times roused by the sternness of the keepers voice which I heard very plainly and which was generally some command closing with a curse and as I supposed directed to the poor boy
My bedchamber door was open and after some time I removed into it and sat down on the feet of the bed again falling into reveries which fixed me motionless to the place I cannot tell what was the hour nor how long I had been thus seated but I was roused by the sound of a door opening and once more by the voice of the keeper which I heard so distinctly as to doubt for a moment whether it were not in my own chamber
At the same time a broad ray of light suddenly struck against the wall of my bedroom I followed it with my eye I was still at the foot of the bed and its direction was from the left to the right I had much inclination to pull off my shoes and endeavour to trace by what aperture
it entered but on further reflection I concluded it would be best not to excite any alarm in a mind which cannot but be continually tormented by suspicion and fear
I paid strict attention however to every circumstance that might aid my memory in tracing it on the morrow
The voice of the keeper for he spoke several times was now much more distinct than before he was going to bed and the question—
Are you sure all is safe
—was repeated several times with great anxiety and was answered in the affirmative by a mans voice—Do you hear him stir said the keeper—The reply was—
No—But I am sure I heard him a little before ten
The keeper however could not be satisfied and in less than five minutes I heard my door unbolting The keeper and both his men came in with their bludgeons He asked morosely why I did not go to bed I answered because I had no inclination to sleep He went again to the windows and examined the very walls with the utmost circumspection and afterward turning away said—
Sleep or wake Ill be d if you have any chance
He then left me and I presently afterward saw the ray of light again and heard his various motions at going to bed
I passed the night without closing my eyes and in the morning began to examine where it was possible the light
should obtain admission I placed myself in the same situation and looking to the left saw the closet was in that direction and that the door was open
Looking into it I found that a part of the flooring in the left hand corner was decayed and that the ceiling beneath had a fissure of some width
I thought it a fortunate circumstance that sounds were conveyed so distinctly into my apartments though I speak chiefly of the bedchamber for it was the loudness of the keepers voice and the stillness of surrounding objects which most contributed to my hearing him in the front apartment Not but the decayed state of the building favoured the conveyance of sound in all directions
I began to consider how far I could improve the means that offered themselves and watching my opportunity in the course of the day with my fingers and by the aid of the stick left to stir my fire I removed some of the decayed mortar to the right and left and increased the aperture on the inside but was exceedingly careful not to push any flakes or part of the ceiling down into the floor below The attention I paid to this was very exact for it was of the utmost consequence Nor was I less accurate in pressing together the rubbish I scraped away into vacant corners between the joists and leaving no traces that should lead to discovery
All these precautions were highly necessary as the behaviour of the keeper
had proved for when he came into my chamber in the morning as he did early with his customary attendants he searched and pried about with all the assiduity of suspicion
At breakfast I was again waited on by the boy and watched by the keeper It was necessary I should not excite alarms in a mind so full of apprehension I therefore behaved with reserve to the boy though with great complacency said little and dismissed him soon
In the forenoon the door opened again the boy was sent in with the straight waistcoat and the keeper said to me—
Come sir put on your jacket—Here boy be handy
—
I once more hesitated and asked if
Mr Mac Fane were coming to pay me another visit He did not return me a direct answer but replied—
If you will put on the jacket you may go and stretch your pins for half an hour in the garden if not stay where you are and be d
After a short deliberation I concluded that to comply was prudent and I very peaceably aided the boy in performing his office As my back was turned to the keeper I smiled kindly and significantly to the boy to which he replied by a look expressive of surprise and curiosity
It cannot be supposed but that my mind had been most anxiously enquiring into the possibility and means of escape while in my prison and that the moment
this unexpected privilege was granted me its whole efforts were directed to the same subject
I walked in the garden overlooked and in a certain manner followed by the keeper and his attendants I therefore traversed it in various directions without seeming to pay the least attention to the object on which my mind was most busy But the chance of escape my hands being thus confined appeared to be as small in the garden as in the house It is completely surrounded by a high wall which joins the house at each end It had one small gate or rather door which was locked and bolted and had no other entrance except from the house After having walked about an hour as I suppose the keeper
asked me in a tone rather of command than question if I were not tired I answered—No To which he replied But I am Accordingly without saying another word I returned to my prison
I will attempt no description of the sufferings of my mind and the continual fears by which it was distracted not for myself for there was no appearance at this time that any greater harm than confinement was intended me but for another The subject is torturing but resignation and fortitude are duties My reason for mentioning it is that it strongly excited me to some prompt effort at escape
I could think of none except of endeavouring to convince the keeper it was more his interest to give me my freedom than to
keep me in confinement Consequently when my dinner was brought and he had taken his station I asked him if he would do me the favour to converse with me for half an hour either privately or in the presence of his own men
He did not suffer me to finish my sentence but exclaimed—
None of your gab I tell you If you speak another word Ill have you jacketed and then b me my kiddy if you get it off again in a hurry
I said no more but ate my dinner casting an eye occasionally to the door and conjecturing what were the probabilities by a very sudden spring of breaking the chain for he had only put one up or of drawing the staple by which it was held and which from the thickness
of the woodwork I knew could not be clenched It was not possible I believe for mind to be actuated by stronger motives than mine was in my wish to escape the circumstance of the single chain might not occur a second time and I determined on the trial
I prolonged my dinner till I perceived him begin to yawn and at last turn his head the other way I was about twelve feet distant from the door I rose quietly made two steps and then gave a sudden spring I came with great violence against the door but it resisted me and of course I fell backward
After the first moment of surprise the keeper instantly locked the door and in a rage of cursing called his assistants They however soon pacified him by
turning his attention to the strength of his own fastenings and scoffing at my fruitless attempt
But this incident induced him to change his mode he stood no more with the door ajar to watch me but after sending in the boy locked and bolted it upon us
I was in full expectation of the straight waistcoat and his forbearance I imagine was occasioned by the strict orders he must have received to the contrary His threat indeed when I attempted to speak is a proof rather against this supposition and I can solve it no other way than by supposing that his orders were if I attempted persuasion with him he would then be at liberty to do a thing to which he seemed exceedingly prone
His fears for himself should I escape must inevitably be strong and a man who has waded far enough in error to commit an act so violent will willingly plunge deeper in proportion as such fears increase
The sudden spring I had made at the door combining with the supposition of madness had such an effect upon the poor boy that hearing the door lock and seeing me as he imagined let loose upon him his fright returned in full force His looks were so pale and he trembled so violently that I feared he would fall into a fit I went up to him with the utmost gentleness and said—Dont be afraid my good boy Indeed I will not hurt you
The keeper scarcely stayed a minute
before recollecting I had been long enough at dinner he opened the door again but with the caution of the three chains and bade the boy take away
I then began to accuse myself of precipitancy but I soon remembered that every thing ought to be hazarded where every thing is at stake My fears were not for myself and while my arms were free could I have come upon them thus suddenly success was far from improbable Vice is always cowardly and difference of weapons out of the question three to one are not invincible odds
It now first occurred to me how prudent it would be to conceal my bankbills and I began to consider which were the best means I took them out examined
their numbers and endeavoured to fix them in my memory
This was no difficult task but prudence required that nothing should be left to chance and I took the burnt end of my stick and going into the back room wrote the numbers against the wall in a place which from its darkness was least liable to notice Indeed I considered there was little to fear even should the figures I made be seen for I wrote them in one continued line which rendered them unintelligible without a key
I then once more took my chair and placed it at the closet door thinking that to hide them at one corner of the topmost shelf might perhaps be the securest place I previously began to feel
and at the far end of the shelf I put my hand upon something which when brought to light proved to be the remainder of a bundle of quills
I felt again but found nothing more there
I then removed my chair toward the other end and after two or three times sweeping my hand ineffectually along the shelf I struck the edge of it against the wall and more than half a quire of paper fell flat upon it
This led me to conjecture that the shelf had been a hiding place perhaps to some lovesick girl and that it was possible there should be ink After another more accurate search and turning my other hand with which I could
feel better to the opposite side I found an inkbottle
I took down my treasure and examined it there was cotton in the bottle but the ink was partly mouldy and partly dried away However by the aid of a little water I presently procured more than sufficient to write down my numbers But I wanted a pen and for this there was no succedaneum
As the safest way of preserving what might become useful I returned my treasure to the shelf on which it had been found and for that reason began to consider of another place for my banknotes After looking carefully round both chambers I at last lifted up the old picture and here I found a break in the wainscot in which was inserted laterally
full as much more writing paper as the quantity I had discovered in the closet I took away the paper entirely lest if seen it should lead to further search and twisting up the bills laid them so as to be certain of recovering them when I pleased The paper I put upon the shelf
When the boy brought my supper I asked him his name how old he was and other trifling questions to familiarize and embolden him and learned from his answers that he had a poor mother who was unable to provide for him and that he had been bound apprentice to this keeper by the parish
At last I enquired if he could write and read
He answered yes he had been called
the best scholar of the charity school in which he was bred
I then asked if he continued to practise his learning
He replied he loved reading very much indeed but he had no books
Did he write
He had no paper
Was there a pen and ink in the house
Yes but the pen was seldom used and good for nothing
Could he get me a pen
If he had but a quill he could make me one
Had he a penknife
No he had forgotten that but one of the men had a knife with several blades and he could ask him to lend it
And what should he write supposing he had paper
A letter
To whom
To his mother
I thought it not right to expose my stores to him and therefore suffered him to go for that time without saying any thing more on the subject But my discourse with him had pretty well driven all apprehension from his mind I was cautious to speak in a very low tone of voice and without being bidden he had acuteness enough to follow my example
The next day at breakfast I gave him a sheet of paper and two quills and told him to make pens of them if he could one for himself and the
other for me and to take the paper for his letter He looked with intelligent surprise—Where did they come from was the question in his thoughts but he said nothing Madmen were beings whom he did not comprehend
My kindness to him however made him desirous to oblige me I gave him a part of my breakfast and he ate what I gave him in a manner that shewed he was not overfed
At dinner he brought me both the pens I asked him why he did not keep one to write to his mother He said he had written but had cleaned and cut the pen over again They were not ill made considering that as he told me the knife was a bad one
But what will you do for ink sir said
he I told him I had a little but that I should be glad if I had more Perhaps he replied he could get one of the men to bring him a halfpennyworth I said I had no money and he answered a gentleman Mr Clifton I suppose had just given him sixpence for holding his horse that he intended to save it for his mother but that he would spare a halfpenny to buy me ink
I took the boys hand and said to him—
If ever I live to get free from this place I will remember you
—The emotions I felt communicated themselves and he looked sorrowfully up in my face and asked—
Why are not you mad sir
The very earnest but mild manner
with which I answered—
No my good fellow
—both convinced him and set his imagination to work
I said little more but finished my meal wrote down my numbers and gave him the bottle but warned him if he were questioned by no means to tell an untruth The boy looked at me again in a manner that spoke highly in his favour put the bottle in his pocket and as soon as his master returned to the door removed the things and departed
He brought the ink with my supper One of the men had taken his sixpence but refused to return him any change and the ink he had emptied out of the keepers bottle Such are the habits of vice The boy related it with indignation but said he dared not complain
I had nothing else to give I therefore rewarded the generous boy with a couple of quills and four sheets of paper for his own use cautioning him to keep them to write to his mother
While I wanted the means I imagined it would have been a great relief to have had the power of writing down my thoughts but I found they were much too busy and disturbed by the recollection of Anna St Ives and her danger and by the incessant desire of finding some means of escape notwithstanding a thousand repeated convictions of its impossibility to suffer me to write either with effect or connection I did nothing but make memorandums some of thoughts that occurred and others of circumstances that were present I concealed
my papers in the wainscot behind the picture where I mean to leave this narrative
The indulgence of my morning walk was continued and on the sixth day of my confinement an incident happened by which I almost effected my release
Confiding in the strait waistcoat and in the strength of his locks and bars and become less apprehensive from this persuasion the keeper had left me under the care of only one of his men himself and the other were employed on something which he wanted done in the house
While they were absent the gardenbell rang The voice of Mac Fane was heard demanding entrance by the man who was set to watch me
and fetching the key he opened the gate without hesitation
My hopes were instantly excited I made a short turn and crossed him as if continuing my walk a few yards distant from the gate He eyed me however and I went on but the moment he was busied in unlocking and unbolting it I turned round sprang forward and as it opened rushed past
The violence of my motion overset Mac Fane The master whose suspicions had taken the alarm was entering the garden and saw me He and his man and Mac Fane instantly joined in the pursuit
Though I was in the strait waistcoat yet I happened to be swifter than any of them The keeper was soon the first
in the chase it was up a narrow lane with a highbanked hedge on each side A man was coming down it and the keeper called to him to stop me The man seeing my arms confined and hearing the shouts of my pursuers endeavoured to do as he was desired He placed himself directly in my way and I ran full against him
We both fell but the man by the aid of his hands was up rather the soonest He laid hold of me and a sudden thought struck me They were bawling behind—A madman A madman—and I assumed that grinning contortion of countenance which might easiest terrify uttered an uncouth noise and began to bite at the man Terror seized
him and I again got away the very moment the keeper was coming up
I had not run a hundred yards further before I saw another man at a distance and the hue and cry behind was as hot as ever The hedge in this place was lower and I jumped over it into the field on my right There was a ditch on the other side of which I had no intimation and my feet alighting on the edge of it I once more fell
My pursuers profited by a gate which I had passed It was the field of a gardener and a man was at work close by He came and helped me up but not soon enough the keeper arrived and presently after his man and Mac Fane
I addressed myself to the gardener
endeavoured to tell him who I was and said I would give him a hundred pounds if he would aid me to escape but my efforts were soon put an end to by the keeper who threw me down a second time violently thrust his thumb into my throat and by gagging me prevented further speech
Mac Fane however thought proper to give the man half a crown and they all assured him I was a madman which story was confirmed by the man who supposed himself bitten and who had joined in the pursuit
The extreme malevolence of Mac Fane again displayed itself but his treatment is unworthy notice except as it relates to what is to come
I was hurried back to my prison left
with the strait waistcoat on that whole day and night and was fed by the boy who shewed many silent tokens of commiseration though once more watched by the keeper and his two attendants with the three chains up at the door All conversations between me and the boy were for several days ended by the continued overlooking of the keeper and his men
After the keeper and Mac Fane had retired I went into the back room and was standing with my face toward the window which is beside the closet The behaviour of Mac Fane had been so extraordinary as already to lead me to suspect he had a wish to take away my life
As I was standing here I heard the
keepers bedroom door open and shut again and soon after the voices of him and Mac Fane in conversation I listened very attentively to a dialogue the substance of which was to me much more alarming than unexpected It was a consultation on the part of Mac Fane on the policy and means of murdering me
The keeper opposed him several times mentioned Mr Clifton as an unconquerable objection and urged the danger of being detected for he did not seem to revolt at the fact
Mac Fane answered he would silence Clifton of whom his favourite phrase was that He should soon do him—which he repeated very often with a
variety of uncommon oaths He even said that were I fairly out of the way he could make Edward St Ives pay him the three thousand guineas
The curses which Mac Fane continually coupled with my name and the rancour the thirst of blood which preyed upon him were incredible He a hundred times imprecated eternal damnation to his soul if there were the least danger The fellows the keeper had with him were of his own providing they knew he could hang them both they durst not impeach Squeak I recollect was the word he used To take me off was the safest way Clifton would in reality be an accessary before the fact and therefore obliged to silence Beside—
He would do him He would do
him
—This he confirmed by a new string of oaths
The keeper however continued averse to the project said the fellows would hang their own father if he could not bribe them that there was nothing to be got by putting me out of the way and that he would not venture his neck unless he saw good cause
While they were arguing the point a loud and authoritative rap was heard at the keepers door accompanied by the voice of Mr Clifton demanding admiss on He entered and the whole story of my escape was related with that colouring which their own fears inspired
Mac Fane darkly hinted the thoughts he had been communicating to the keeper but meeting repulse from Mr
Clifton whenever ideas of cruelty were started he thought proper to use more reserve
The keeper concluded his account by affirming it would be necessary to continue me in the strait waistcoat and not to let me walk in the garden any more Mr Clifton assented to the latter but positively ordered my arms to be released There was no need he said to punish me in this manner and it should not be At the same time he gave the keeper a twenty pound note and repeated his orders to treat me properly but to take care not to suffer me to escape
Misguided man How does your heart pant after virtue How grieve at the slavery in which it is held What
will its agony be when the full measure of error is come
Yet this to me was the lucid moment of hope for it suggested a train of conclusions which seem like heavenly certainties—Mr Clifton has made his attempts on Anna St Ives and they have been repelled Even still and it is several days since his efforts continue to be ineffectual—It must be so—The purposes of vice are frustrated by the pure energies of virtue for had they succeeded I should be released Heartcheering thought Pleasure inexpressible Yes Anna St Ives is safe Truth is omnipotent and out of my ashes another and probably a more strenuous and determined assertor of it may arise Clifton at last may see how very
foul is folly and turn to wisdom Would he might be spared the guilt of purchasing conviction at the price of blood
Three days passed away after my escape without any remarkable occurrence The sanguinary malignity of Mac Fane was more than counterbalanced by the reasonings of probability and hope in favour of Anna St Ives
During my confinement I had slept but little Wearied however at length by the repetition of ideas that were unavailing I was slumbering more soundly than usual on the night after the ninth day and was dreaming that my doors were unbolted the chains rattling and men entering to murder me from which
I was waked by starting in my dream to run and resist them It was the real clanking of the bolts and locks of the house doors that inspired this dream they opened to give some one admission I know not what was the hour but it must be very late and it was completely dark I soon distinguished Mac Fanes voice I jumped up hastily dressed myself in part and presently heard the keepers door open—The ray of light appeared on the wall—I crept toward the closet
The first word Mac Fane uttered was—
I told you I should do him—I told you I should do him
He kept repeating this and other exclamations which I could not at first comprehend closing each of them with
oaths expressive of uncommon exultation But he descanted almost instantly from Mr Clifton to whom his phrase alluded to me adding—it was high time now to do me too
His joy was so great his oaths so multiplied▪ and his asseverations so continual that he would tread me out would send my soul to hell that very night and other similar phrases that it was some time before the keeper could obtain an answer to his question of—What does all this mean At last Mr Mac Fane began to relate as soberly as the intoxication of his mind would permit that he had done him Mr Clifton out of ten thousand pounds
Had he got the money
No—But God shiver his soul to flames if he did not make him pay He would blow him to powder drink his blood eat his bones if he did not
This was not all—He had another prize Eight thousand pounds The money was now in the house
He stopped short—The cupidity of the keeper was excited and he grew impatient Mac Fane I imagine hesitated to reconsider if it were possible to get all the money himself make away with me secretly and leave the keeper in ignorance But he could not but conclude this to be impracticable
I could not sufficiently connect the meaning of all the phrases that followed they might depend as much on seeing as
hearing but I understood Mac Fane was acquainted with the circumstance of the money I have in my possession though whether his knowledge were gained from Mr Clifton or Anna St Ives for they were both mentioned I could not distinguish He talked much of a letter of his own cunning and of the contempt in which he held Mr Clifton
The keeper however was convinced of the fact for he proposed immediately to murder me and secure the money
This point was for some time debated and I every moment expected they would leave the room to perpetrate the crime Mac Fane had his pistols and cutlass yet seemed to suppose a possibility
even of my conquering them The keeper was much more confident—
He knew how to bring me down he had no fear of that
—Mac Fane remembered his defeat and the keeper his cheaply bought victory
They agreed it could not be done silently unless they could catch me asleep and the unbolting of the doors would awaken me They wished the keepers fellows to know nothing of the matter they would claim their share
At last Mac Fane proposed that I should be put in the strait waistcoat the next morning on pretence of walking me out in the garden that perhaps it would be best to suffer me to walk there but not to take off the strait
waistcoat any more that then the doors might be left unbolted and even unlocked my arms being confined and the next night they might come and dispatch me
The conversation continued long after this and schemes of flight either to Ireland or the continent were concerted and the riches and happiness they should enjoy insisted on with great selfapplause and pleasure Poor mistaken men
They at last parted with a determination to execute the scheme of the strait waistcoat Mac Fane took possession of the keepers bed and he as I imagine went to that of his men
And here I must remark that Mac Fane either forgot or did not imagine that my immediate murder would be an impediment to the payment of the ten thousand pound gaming debt from Mr Clifton which fear afterward actuated him strongly It could not do otherwise the moment it was conceived
According to agreement in the morning the keeper came with as much pretended kindness as he knew how to assume to tell me I might have my walk in the garden again if I pleased I answered I did not wish to walk He endeavoured to persuade me but he soon found it was to no purpose He then ordered the boy away who had brought
the strait waistcoat and quitted his station at the door in great dudgeon
I soon afterward heard as I expected Mac Fane and him in his own room Mac Fane cursed the keeper bitterly and supposed that for want of cunning he had in part betrayed himself and rendered me suspicious The keeper resented his behaviour and cursed again till I imagined they had fairly quarrelled
Mac Fane however began to cool and to talk of another expedient of which he had been thinking This was to poison me In this the keeper immediately joined and began to enquire about the means of procuring the poison The boy was first mentioned but that was
thought too dangerous At last Mac Fane determined himself to go to London and buy arsenic on pretence of poisoning rats and to set off immediately On this they concluded and presently left the room
My whole attention was now employed in watching the opening of the keepers door but there was reason to apprehend they would converse somewhere else on their projects I imagine however they thought this the safest and most inaccessible place for a little before dark I again heard the voice of Mac Fane and they presently came back to their former station
Mac Fane related the difficulty he had found in getting the arsenic that several shops had refused him and that at
last he had succeeded by ordering a quantity of drugs for which he paid leaving them to be sent to a fictitious address and returning back pretending he wanted some poison for the rats asking them which was the best They recommended arsenic which they directed him to make up in balls and he ordered a quarter of a pound They weighed it he put it in his pocket and they noticed the circumstance telling him they would send it home with the other drugs but he walked away pretending not to hear what they said
Mac Fane glorying in his own cunning was impatient to administer his drug and proposed it should be sent up in my tea The keeper assented and the boy very soon afterward brought me
some tea in a pot ready made contrary to custom I having been used to make my own tea
The keeper was at the door I asked him the reason of this deviation and he bade me drink my tea and be thankful I poured some out first looked at it then tasted it and afterwards threw it into the ashes saying it was bad tea I next examined the teapot smelled into it and then dashed it to pieces on the hearth I looked toward the keeper and told him there was something in the tea that ought not to have been
Seeing me take up the candle and begin to move he instantly shut the door His conscience was alarmed and for a moment he forgot the security of his chains He even called up his
men before he opened it again after which the boy was released but not before I had time to tell him never to eat any thing that was brought for me The poor boy noticed the significance with which I said it and fixed his eyes mournfully upon me I shook him by the hand bade him be a good boy and not learn wickedness from his master
The remains of the teaset were soon removed and a fresh consultation presently began in the keepers room Mac Fane was again enraged and blamed the keeper who began to suppose there was something supernatural in my behaviour He said I looked at him as if I knew it was poison and it was very strange Mac Fane swore he would dose me at supper and would go and make
me eat it himself or blow my brains out but he presently recollected I had not the strait waistcoat on and altered his tone It was hoever agreed that another attempt should be made
I now began to consider all circumstances whether it were probable if I ate a little that the keeper should suppose it only a temporary want of appetite what quantity might be eaten without harm and if it were not practicable to watch the moment when they should come by night to execute their wicked purpose and to pass them and escape A little reasoning shewed me that I should be in the dark in a house the avenues to which were all secured and with which I was unacquainted that the number I had to contend with
now would be four three of them provided with bludgeons and the fourth with a hanger and pistols that release by the order of Mr Clifton was not impossible and that if I began a fray I should excite cowardice to action and having begun Mac Fane would scarcely miss such an opportunity
These reasons made me rather resolve to persevere in fasting which remedy though it could not be of long duration appeared to be the wisest Yet caution was necessary for should I make them absolutely despair of poisoning me they would have recourse to other means
My resolution was taken and when the supper came I tasted a bit of bread and drank a small quantity of water after carefully inspecting it and without
saying any thing more sent the rest away
The keepers door soon opened the ray of light appeared on the wall and a new consultation succeeded The keeper again was troubled with superstitious fears and Mac Fane was persuaded that •aving been alarmed at teatime I had from suspicion refused to eat any supper
After a debate they concluded it would be in vain to attempt to poison me in my tea for I should detect it they would therefore send me a short allowance at breakfast keep me hungry and prepare my dinner for the next day The keeper proposed to give me nó breakfast but Mac Fane said that was the way to make me suspect
They were both highly chagrined but Mac Fane was much the most talkative at all times and the loudest in oaths and menaces though I scarcely think even him a more dangerous man than the keeper
In the morning observing they had sent agreeable to their plan a small quantity after a little examination I ate what was brought me and the keeper retired apparently satisfied
It was far otherwise at dinner when I absolutely refused to eat and their vexation was greatly increased by my persisting to refuse the whole day
Late at night a new council was held and it was long in debate whether I should be suffered to live the night out At last the cupidity of Mac Fane prevailed
and his fear of not getting Mr Cliftons bond for eleven thousand pounds as he said though I understood he had won but ten seems now to have first struck him and this induced him to desist I understood however that Mac Fane had still some hopes from his poison and consequently that to fast would still be necessary
Their final resolve was that the moment Mr Clifton should have given Mac Fane the bond they would then delay no longer and from the threats which he vaunted of having used he expected the bond to be given the next day when Mr Clifton was to come to the keepers if I understood them rightly after his visit to Anna St Ives
This idea again conjured up torturing
images and fears which no efforts I have been able to make can entirely appease
I began this narrative the first day on which I found my life was in danger and have continued it to this time which is now the twelfth day of my confinement The desire which the keeper expresses to possess himself of the money convinces me of my great jeopardy He was eager to have committed the murder last night during the last conversation I heard That I should escape with life from the hands of these wicked men is but little probable but I will not desert myself I will not forward an act of blood by timidity Were I to destroy the bankbills and to tell them they were destroyed I should not be believed
I mean to try another expedient—I hear them in the keepers room
These are the last words I shall ever write They are determined on immediate murder—But I will sell my life dearly
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO LOUISA CLIFTON
OH my friend I am escaped Have broken my prison and am sitting now—I cannot tell you where but in a place of safety I have been thus successful by the aid of Laura
It is now four days since I saw your brother Lulled to security by the peaceable
manner in which I had submitted to confinement and imagining Laura to be still in the interest of Mr Clifton though this silly girl is now a very sincere penitent the old woman began to indulge her in still greater liberties I warned Laura very seriously against any precipitate attempts for I saw it was probable this incautiousness would increase provided it were encouraged
No good opportunity offered till this morning when Laura was suffered to take the key of my prison chamber and let herself in and out
The moment she told me of it I enquired what other obstacles there were Laura said we might get into the yard but no further for there was a high wall which no woman could climb I asked
her if she thought a man could climb it She answered yes she had seen men do such things but she could not think how
The absence of Mr Clifton for so long a time without releasing me from my imprisonment made me in hourly expectation of his return I therefore did not stay to hesitate but desired Laura to steal down stairs before me and open the door for that I was determined to attempt the wall
Laura was terrified at the fear of being left behind for she said she never could climb it
Alas What was to become of her
—I told her she should have thought of consequences long ago but that she might be certain I would not desert her on the contrary I would
go to the first house I could find and send her relief if I should happen to climb a wall which she could not Though I likewise added it was weakness and folly to suppose that men were better able to climb walls than women or that she could not follow if I could lead
The assurance of relief in part quieted her fears she opened the first door stole down to the second I followed she unlocked it and we both got into the yard
The wall as she said was high and not easily climbed but I had little time for reflection the old woman saw us through the window and was coming
To this wall there was a gate equally high but with a handle to shut ledges
running across and two or three cracked places that afforded hold for the hand You and I Louisa have often discoursed on the excellence of active courage and the much greater efforts of which both sexes are capable than either of them imagine I climbed the gate with great speed and little difficulty
The old woman was already in the yard and Laura stood wondering to see me on the top of the wall fearing I should now break my neck in getting down again and still in greater terror at the approach of the old woman I made some attempt to persuade the latter to give Laura her liberty but our turnkey is very deaf and instead of listening to me she ran for some offensive weapon to beat me off the wall so once more assuring
Laura I would send her immediate aid and keeping hold of the gate post with my hand I let myself down and with very little hurt
I proceeded along a narrow lane I knew not in what direction but hurried forward in great haste not only from the possibility of being pursued but because it began to blow and rain very heavily In less than ten minutes I came to a house I rang a man came to the gate and I readily gained admission
I was shewn into the room where I am now writing and another person was sent to me who perhaps is the master of the house though from his appearance I should rather suppose the contrary I asked first if it were possible to get a coach and he enquired where I came
from I told him from a house at a considerable distance in the same lane where I had been forcibly shut up and where my maid still was whom I wished to have released adding I would well reward any two men by whom it might easily be effected if they would go and help her over the wall
He listened very attentively stood some time to consider and then replied there was no coach to be procured within a mile of the place but that a man should go for one and that I might make myself easy concerning the young woman Laura for she should soon join me The look and manner of the man did not please me but the case was urgent the storm increasing and I in want of shelter and protection
I then recollected it would perhaps be safest to write immediately to GrosvenorStreet to prevent surprise as well as to guard against accidents and I asked if he could furnish me with a sheet of paper and pen and ink He answered he feared not but called a boy and said to him—
Did not I see you with some writing paper the other day
The boy answered yes and he bade him go and fetch it and bring me the pen and ink
He then left me and the boy presently returned with a sheet of paper an old inkbottle and a very indifferent pen The boy looked at me earnestly and then examined the pen saying it was a very bad one but he would fetch me a better
The man who was just gone had told me that nobody could be spared to go as far as I required in less than an hour at the soonest I therefore have time to write at length
I think there can be little doubt but that my Louisa is long before this in GrosvenorStreet I would not wish Sir Arthur to be informed too suddenly I will therefore direct to her at a venture but for fear of accidents will add to the direction—
If Miss Clifton be not there to be opened and read by Mrs Clarke
—In the present alarmed state of the family this will ensure its being opened even if both my good friends should be absent
Good heaven What does this mean—I have just risen to see if the little boy were within call and find the door is locked upon me
I have been listening—I hear stern and loud voices—I fear I have been very inconsiderate—I know not what to think
Where am I—Oh Louisa I am seized with terror Looking into the tabledrawer at which I am sitting in search of wafers I have found my own letter opened dirtied and worn Alas You know of no such letter—Again I am addressing myself to the winds—The very fatal letter in which I mentioned
the eight thousand pounds—Where am I where am I—In what is all this to end
All is lost—Flight is hopeless—The very man who headed the ruffians that seized me has just walked into the room placed himself with his back against the door surveyed me satisfied himself who it was then warily left me locked the door and called a man to guard it—Oh my incautious folly
I am in the dwelling of demons—I never heard such horrible oaths—Surely there is some peculiar mischief working—The noise increases with unheardof blasphemy
Merciful Heaven I hear the voice of Frank—What is doing—Must I remain here—Oh misery—What cries
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London Dover Street
ALL is over Fairfax—I am just brought from the scene of blood—You see this is not my handwriting—My hand must never write more—But I would employ the little strength I have in relating
the last scene of this eventful history
My sister is my amanuensis
These surgical meddlers issued their edict that I should not speak but they found I could be as obstinate as themselves I would not suffer a probe to be drawn at me till I had written for when they begin I expect it will soon be over
I remember I ended my last at the very minute I was about to mount my horse It was a wintery day The rain fell in sheets and the wind roared in my face My pistols were charged and locked in my pocket
I rode full speed but I set off too late When I approached the madhouse I heard the most piercing shrieks and cries of murder—They mingled with the storm in wild and appalling horror—I rang violently at the bellA ready and
an eager hand soon flew to open the gate—It was Anna St Ives—A boy shewed her the way—It was her cries and his mingled with the blasphemies of the wretches above which I had heard
Her first word again was murder—Fly Save him save him—
I rushed forward—The noise above stairs was dreadful—I blundered and missed the stairs but the terrified boy had run after me to shew me I heard two pistols fire as I ascended—The horror that struck my heart was inconceivable—A fellow armed with a bludgeon was standing to guard the door My pistols were unlocked and ready I presented and bade him give way—He instantly obeyed—I made the lock fly and entered—The first object that struck
my sight was Frank besmeared with blood a discharged pistol in his hand defending himself against a fellow aiming blows at him with a bludgeon Mac Fane hewing at him with a cutlass and the keeper who had just been shot expiring at his feet
I fired at Mac Fane—My shot took place though not so effectually but that he turned round made a stab at me and pierced the abdomen almost to the spine But he had met his fate and the return he made was most welcome—He fell and the remaining antagonists of Frank immediately fled
Frank is living but dreadfully hacked by the villain Mac Fane They tell me his life is safe and that his wounds are deep but not dangerous Perhaps they
mean to deceive me If so their folly is extreme and their pity to me ill placed I well know I deserve no pity
With respect to myself my little knowledge of surgery teaches me that a wound so violent made with a cutlass in such a part must be mortal But mortality to me is a blessing To live would indeed be misery Torments never yet were imagined equal to those I have for some time endured but though I have lived raving I do not mean to die canting Take this last adieu therefore dear Fairfax and do not because you once esteemed me endeavour to palliate my errors Let my letters to you do justice to those I have injured To have saved his life who once saved mine is a ray of consolation
to that proud swelling heart which has sometimes delighted to confer but has always turned averse from the receiving of obligations I would have been more circumstantial in my narrative were it not for the teasing kindness of my sister
Once more and everlastingly adieu
C CLIFTON
P S ADDED BY LOUISA CLIFTON
As to a friend of my brother sir I have taken the liberty to delay sending the letter till his wound has been examined The surgeons are divided in their judgment Two of them affirm the wound is mortal the third is positive that a cure is possible especially considering
the youth and high courage of the patient on which he particularly insists I dare not indulge myself too much in hope I merely state opinion Neither dare I speak of my own sensations Of the worth of a mind like that of Mr Clifton you sir his friend and correspondent cannot be ignorant The past is irrevocable but hope always smiles on the future Should he recover— Resignation becomes us and time will quickly relieve us from doubt
L CLIFTON
ANNA WENBOURNE ST IVES TO MRS WENBOURNE
GrosvenorStreet
I RETURN you my sincere thanks dear madam for your kind congratulations and think myself honoured by the great joy you express at my safety and the deliverance of Mr Henley I will not attempt to describe my own feelings they are inexpressible
but will endeavour to obey your commands and give you the best account I am able of all that has befallen us
For this purpose I inclose the narrative written by Mr Henley during his confinement and three letters addressed to my friend Louisa but never sent with a copy of a letter dictated by Mr Clifton to his friend Mr Fairfax To these be pleased to add the following particulars of what passed after Mr Henleys narrative breaks off and the sudden interruption of my third letter by terror
Mr Henley heard but had not time to write their last consultation It was the eagerness of the keeper which overcame the reluctance of Mac Fane to
the murder till he should have procured the bond of Mr Clifton The keeper was violent he had bargained with his two men to assist in the murder for fifty pounds each and he told Mac Fane if he would not consent they would proceed without him and he should have no share of the eight thousand pounds
This argument had its effect Mac Fane had some doubts relative to the money won of Mr Clifton and four thousand pounds was a temptation not to be resisted
Mr Henley omitted mentioning a circumstance that occurred of some moment because he did not know the meaning of it Probably they had planned it out of his hearing The day before the attack the keeper returned
him his watch and purse with the same sum but not as Mr Henley thinks the same pieces it contained when delivered The purpose of this it appears was to make him believe the keeper a man of his word
On the morning of the intended murder previous to the assault the keeper came up to Mr Henley but not into the room He talked to him with the usual security of his chains and proposed that Mr Henley should deliver up the bankbills which the keeper now told him he knew to be in his possession with a promise that they should be returned as the watch and purse had been
An artifice so shallow was not likely to impose on Mr Henley He had determined how to act relative to the bank
bills and answered it was true they were in his possession but that he would not deliver them to the keeping of any other Immediately after this repulse the keeper Mac Fane and the two attendants ascended
The keeper I speak after Mr Henley was much the most confident and seemed chiefly fearful that Mr Henley should slip by them He therefore stationed one of his men at the outside of the door which he ordered him to lock and guard Himself Mac Fane and the other entered the room the keeper and the man each with a bludgeon and Mac Fane with a pair of pistols and his cutlass hanging by his side
Mr Henley had purposely kept up a good fire and had the bank bills in
his hand He bade them keep off a moment as if he wished to parley and they desirous of having the bills quietly remained where they were Mr Henley then took the bills one by one repeating the amount of each to convince them that the whole sum was there and then suddenly thrust them into the fire They all rushed forward to save them and this was the lucky moment on which Mr Henley seized the two arms of Mac Fane who on account of his weapons was the principal object and who intending to fire at him in the struggle shot the keeper The other pistol Mr Henley wrested from him during which contest it went off but without doing mischief
Mac Fane then drew his hanger and made several cuts at Mr Henley who was attacked on the other side by the keepers man
In the heat of this conflict Mr Clifton arrived and what then followed his letter will inform you
It is necessary I should now say a word of myself and of the small part which I had in this very dreadful affair And here I must remind you of the boy so often mentioned in Mr Henleys narrative for to him perhaps we all owe our safety At least had it not been for him Mr Clifton could not certainly have gained admission
The poor fellow heard and saw enough to let him understand some strange crime was in agitation He has great acuteness
and sensibility he looked at me when I first came in a very significant manner and would have spoken had he dared
The door of the room in which I was shut was both locked and bolted but the man that was set to guard it was wanted for a more bloodthirsty purpose
I need not inform you how much my fears were alarmed the moment I found myself in the custody of the man by whom I had at first been seized But how infinitely was my terror increased when I heard the voice of Frank which I did very distinctly and presently afterward of the horror about to be committed My shrieks were incessant The poor boy heard them and though shrieking with terror almost as violent as
my own yet had the presence of mind to come and set me free
Mr Cliftons ringing was heard at the same moment The top bolt of the gate was high and I opened it with difficulty but despair lent me force It certainly could not have been opened time enough by the boy
Of this and the following scene and of the agonizing sensations that accompanied them I will attempt no further description I will now only relate by what means and whose aid we left this house of horror
You know madam with what activity my dear Louisa exerted herself and employed every expedient in her power You are likewise acquainted with the zeal of Mrs Clarke her niece Peggy
and the two men her husband and brother Their ardour increased rather than abated
Mr Webb whose watchings and efforts were incessant saw Mac Fane step out of a hackneycoach into the shop where Mr Clifton lodges This I understand to have happened on the ninth evening of my confinement It was natural that this circumstance should immediately excite suspicion and alarm The coach was dismissed Mac Fane remained and Mr Webb continued hovering about the door waiting in expectation of seeing him come out till two oclock in the morning but waiting in vain after which concluding that he had missed him he quitted his post
On the morrow by very diligent enquiry
he found out Mac Fanes lodgings but he had not been at home all night The same ineffectual search was continued during that and the next day but on the morning of deliverance Mr Webb met a person with whom he had formerly been acquainted who told him of the house hired by the keeper and mentioned the names of his two assistants with rumours and surmises sufficiently dark and unintelligible but enough to make Mr Webb suppose it was possible the persons he was in search of were there confined
The intelligence was immediately brought to Louisa and Sir Arthur and application as immediately made to the magistracy Webb had obtained very accurate information of the site of
the house and what was more effectual had prevailed on his informer to lend his aid
The relief he brought though too late to prevent mischief was not wholly useless Mr Clifton was the first object of our care for Mr Henley though bruised cut and mangled has received no serious injury Laura was likewise sent for and relieved from her prison Proper conveyances were soon provided and we all removed as fast as possible from this scene of horror
You may be sure madam we did not forget to bring the boy with us Mr Henley has an affection for him which the poor fellow very sincerely returns and finds himself relieved from the most
miserable of situations and placed in the most happy
That I may wholly acquit myself of the task I have undertaken I must just mention the Count de Beaunoir He is a gentleman of the most pleasant temper Urbanity is his distinctive mark for in this quality most of his flights originate He has thought himself my admirer but in reality he is the general admirer of whatever he supposes excellent When he was told of my being affianced to Mr Henley instead of expressing chagrin he broke into raptures at our mutual happiness and how much it was merited He does not seem to understand the selfishness of jealousy
Perhaps madam you have not heard the last accounts of the physical gentlemen
relative to Mr Clifton The surgeon who first gave hope is now positive of a cure and his opponents begin to own it is not impossible but they will not yet allow that Mr Clifton is out of danger
The Count de Beaunoir has paid Mr Clifton the utmost attention he visits him twice a day and according to the accounts my friend gives me infuses a spirit of benevolence and affection into his visits which are highly honourable to his heart Indeed I and Mr Henley have several times met him there for you may well imagine madam we are not the least attentive of Mr Cliftons visitors It is at present the sole study of Mr Henley which way best to address himself to a heart and understanding
so capable of generous sensations and noble energies There is an attachment to consistency in the human mind which will not admit of any sudden and absolute change it must be gradual but thus much may with certainty be said Mr Clifton does not at present and I hope will never again treat with complacency those vindictive but erroneous notions which had so nearly proved destructive to all He makes no professions but so much the better he thinks them the more strongly His mind preserves its usual tone is sometimes disturbed even to excess and bitterly angry almost to phrensy at its own mistakes but has lost none of those quick and powerful qualities by which it is so highly distinguished
Sir Arthur madam has desired me to communicate a circumstance which I shall readily do without the false delicacy of supposing that I am not the proper person It is agreed between him and Mr Abimelech Henley that the marriage between me and Mr Frank Henley shall take place in a month to which I thought it my duty to assent I am sorry madam that Lord FitzAllen should continue to imagine his honour will be sullied by this marriage but I am in like manner sorry for a thousand follies which I daily see in the world without having the immediate power of correcting one of them
A W ST IVES
COKE CLIFTON TO GUY FAIRFAX
London DoverStreet
IT is not to be endured They drive me mad I will not have life thus palmed upon me There is neither kindness nor justice in it I will hear no more of duty and philanthropy and general good I am all fiend—Hellborn—The boon companion of the
foulest miscreants the womb of sin ever vomited on earth—The arm in arm familiar of them—In the face of the world—This it is to be honourable—I—I am a man of honour a despiser of peasants an assertor of rank—
Day after day hour after hour here I lie rolling ruminating on ideas which none but demons could suggest haunted by visions which devils only could conjure up And wish me to live Where is the charity of that Angels though they be they have made me miserable I know I have injured them I dont deny it Say what they will they cannot forgive me—Shall I ask it—No—Hell should not make me I will have no more favours I am loaded too much already
For it cannot be true—Their hearts can feel no kindness for me—Oh—
I have lost her—For ever lost her—Yet even this deep damnation I could bear I think I could had I not made myself so very foul and detestable a villain—It is intolerable—The rage of cannibals to mine is patience I could feed on human hearts my own the first and sweetest morsel
Well well—Her I have lost him I have injured—Injured—Arrogance outrage contempt blows imprisonment and murder—These are the damning injuries I have done him—I took greatness upon me I mimicked tyranny and pretended to inflict large vengeance for petty affronts
—I trusted in wiles and imagined mind might be caught in a net
Lo how the adder egg of vanity can brood in its own dunghill and hatch itself to persecution rape and murder—Lo how Guilt and Folly couple and engender darkness to hide their own deformity—The picture is mine—Black midnight rape and blood red murder A horrid but indubitable likeness
There are but two ways either to live and pursue revenge or to die and forget it—Of the pursuit I am weary I have
had a full meal of villany and am glutted its foulness is insufferable and I turn from it loathing Then welcome death Again it would have sought me but for their eternal officiousness It is in vain There are swords pistols and poison still Life has a thousand outlets and to live knowing what I know and never can forget would be rank and hateful cowardice I am determined I will listen to their glosses no more Persuasion is vain and soothing mockery
Yet one act of justice I will perform before I die Send me my letters Fairfax They shall see me in my native colours—Send them
directly—There is consolation in the thought—They have dared to shew letters that exposed them to persecution and malice—I will shew what shall expose me to contempt and hatred—Let them equal me if they can—I am Clifton—Inimitable in absurdity in vice damnable—
Take copies if you will Proclaim me to the world Read them in coffeehouses nail them up at the marketcross Let boys hoot at me and trulls and drabs pluck me by the beard—What can they—It is I myself who hold the scorpion whip—Tis memory—What Envy rage revenge hatred rape and murder
all possessing one man—Poor creature Poor creature—Pity him Fairfax—Pity—Ask pity—Despise him Trample on him Spit in his face
C CLIFTON
FRANK HENLEY TO OLIVER TRENCHARD
London Grosvenor Street
HOW violent and reiterated are the conflicts between truth and error in every mind of ardour—And of all errors the love of self is the most rooted the least easy to detect and supremely difficult to eradicate We
can pardon ourselves any thing except a want of selfrespect but that is intolerable
I described in my last the dissatisfied state of mind of Mr Clifton But while he imagined he should die and soon lose all memory of a scene become so irksome to him his dissatisfaction was trifling compared to what it is at present Repugnant as the idea was to his habitual feelings still I have more than half convinced him that suicide is an act as cowardly as it is criminal Yet to live and face the world loaded as he imagines with unpardonable crimes and everlasting ignominy is a thing to which he knows not
how to consent To combat this new mistake into which he has fallen has for some time past been my chief employment No common efforts could assuage the turbulence of his tempestuous soul Energy superior even to his own was necessary to subject and calm this perturbation But in the simplicity of truth this energy was easy to be found it is from selfdistrust confusion or cowardice if it ever fail
I have just left him and our conversation will give you the best history of his mind which is well worthy our study I found him verging even toward delirium and a fever coming on which if not impeded might soon be fatal He keeps his bed but instead of lying at his ease he remained raised on his elbow
having just finished a letter to his friend Louisa had described the state of his mind and I resolved to catch its tone that I might the more certainly command his attention Without preface and as if continuing a chain of reasoning he addressed me with his eye fixed in all the ardour of enquiry
What is man—What are his functions qualities and uses—Does he not sleep trembling live envying and die cursing—And is this worth aught—Is it to be endured—Why do I suffer life thus to be imposed upon me
It is not suffering or if it be such sufferings are of our own creation—To the virtuous and the wise life is joy and bliss
Perhaps so—Wisdom there may be
and truth and virtue And for the virtuous and the wise the full stream of pleasure may richly flow but not for me Pretend not that I may walk with the gods I who have been the inmate of fiends I who proposed glory to myself from the most contemptible of pursuits I who could dangle after coquettes and prudes feed on and inflate myself with the baubles of a beautys toilette and in the book of vanity inscribe myself a great hero a mighty conqueror for having heaped ridicule on the ridiculous or brought innocence to shame misery and destruction And this I did with a light and vain heart Did it laughing boasting exulting Satanic dog Pest of hell What Stretch souls on the rack and then girn
and mock at them for lying there Tis the sport of devils and by devils invented
Your present indignation is honourable both to your heart and understanding
Oh flatter me not—Vain supercilious coxcomb—I spread my wings crowed in conceit threatened resolved laughed at opposition and kicked the world before me—Oh it was who but I—And what was it I proposed—Fair conquest—Honourable opposition—No—It was treachery covert malice and cowardly conspiracy—A league with helldogs—Horrible bloodthirsty villains—And baffled too defeated after all this infernal enginery Nay had I been so wholly devil as to have
joined in murder what would have followed Why they would next have murdered me and for the justice of the second murder would have hoped pardon even for the hellborn guilt of the first
Do not while you detest and shun one crime plunge into a greater This agony is for having been unjust to others you are now still more unjust to yourself You will not suppose yourself capable of a single virtue yet in your most mistaken moments you never could be so illiberal to your enemies
Would you persuade me I am not a most guilty foul and hateful monster—Oh be more worthy of yourself avoid me detest me curse me
I will answer when you are more calm
Calm—Never while this degraded being shall continue shall such a moment come—I calm Sleeping or waking I at peace I pardon hypocrisy treachery blows bruises prisons chains poison rape and murder Ministers of wrath descend point here your flaming swords annihilate all memory of what manhood and honour were and fit me for the society of the damned
Forbear—Never before did I address him in such a voice—The last dreadful word of his sentence was drowned by my stern and awful violence which reason dictated as the only means of recalling his maddening thoughts from the despair and horror into which they were hurrying—I continued—Frantic man forbear Recall your wild spirits and command them
to order How long will you suffer this petty slavery How long shall the giant rage and expend his strength in tearing up stubble and rending straws—Stretch forth your hand and grasp the oak—Labours worthy of your Herculean mind await and invite you Away to the temple of Error shake its pillars and make its foundations totter—Be yourself—Shall the soaring eagle swoop at reptiles the prey of bats and owls
Do not mock me with impossible hopes—What Have you not held the mirror up to me and shewn me my own hatefulness
Are you a man Will you never shake off this bondage Oh it is base it is beneath you Of what have you been guilty Why of ignorance mistakes
of the understanding false views which you wanted knowledge enough truth enough to correct Have not many of the godlike men whom we admire most been guilty in their youth of equal or of greater errors—Thus alas it happens that minds of the highest hope and most divine stamp and coinage are cut off daily swept away by that other grand mistake of mankind—
Exemplary punishment is necessary
—So they say—But no—Tis exemplary reformation Can the world be better warned by a body in gibbets than by the active virtues of a once misguided but now enlightened understanding The gibbet will remain an object of terror to the traveller who dreads being robbed and murdered
but an incitement to despair in the mind of the murderer—Banish then these black pictures from your mind by which it continues darkened and misled and in their stead behold a soulinspiring prospect of all that is great and glorious rising to your view Feel yourself a man Nay you shall feel it in your own despite A man capable of high and noble actions
Here Oliver I at this time left him His eye remained fixed and he was silent but its wildness was diminished the frown of his brow disappeared and his countenance became more clear Such associations as these tokens denoted ought not to meet interruption However
I took care to return in less than an hour fearful lest he should decline into his former gloom which was little short of phrensy I had been fortunate enough to reduce his discordant feelings to something like harmony and the moment I entered his room the second time he exclaimed—
You are a generous fellow A magnanimous fellow You can work miracles—I know you of old—Can bring the dead to life—Can almost persuade me that even I by living may now and then effect some trifling pitiful good may snatch some of the remnants the offals of honour—But aught eminent aught worthy of—
Be calm
No It cannot be forgotten or forgiven—
Cruel malignant remorseless wretch
Can you speak thus of the present—You know you cannot—And wherefore unjustly insist on the past Be firm Conquer this pride of heart
Why ay—Pride of heart—It is the very damning sin of my soul
Exorcise the foul fiend then and in its stead give welcome to firm but unassuming selfrespect Arise Shake torpor from you and feel your strength It is Atlean made to bear a world Cherish life and become worthy of yourself What Would you kill a mind so mighty Do you not feel it now possessing you emanating flaming bursting to spread itself
Why that were something—Could
I but once again get into my own good liking— You are a strange fellow—You will not hate me Nay will not suffer me to hate myself—Damnation To be cast at such an immense distance Oh it is intolerable It is contemptible—But I will have my revenge—Some how or another I will yet have my revenge And since hate must not be the word why— But no matter—I will have no more vaunting—Yet if I do not— I have had a glimpse and begin to know you—The soul of benevolence of tenderness of attention of love of all the divine faculties that make men deities infuses itself and pervades you—Had I but been wholly fool I had been but partly villain—But I—Oh
monstrous—The fiends with whom I was leagued to me were angels
Why ay contemplate the picture but do not forget it is that of a man you once knew who is now no more He has disappeared and in his stead an angel of light is come
Stop—Go not too fast—I promise nothing—Mark that—I promise nothing—Do not imagine I am now in the feverish repentance of white wine whey—You would have me stay in a world which I myself have rendered hateful—I will think of it—I know your arts—You would realize the fable of Pygmalion and would infuse soul into marble
There is no need you have a soul already inventive capacious munificent sublime
Ay ay—I know—You have a choice collection of words
A soul of ten thousand Nay an army of souls in one
And must I submit Are you determined to make a rascal like me admire and love and give place to all the fine affections of the heart
Ay determined
Oh sister—Louisa at this moment entered To you too I have behaved like a scoundrel A tyrant A petulant ostentatious imperious braggart
You mistake replied Louisa eagerly You mistake You are talking of a very different man A being I could not understand You are my brother
—My brother—I have found the way to your heart Will make it all my own Will twine myself round it Shake me off if you can
The energy with which she spoke and looked and kissed him was irresistible He was overpowered the tears gushed to his eyes but he repressed them he thought them unmanly and seeing his medical friend enter exclaimed—I have surgeons for the body and surgeons for the mind who cut with so deep yet so steady a hand that they take away the noxious and leave the sound to suppurate and heal
Can we do less said I Ours is no common task We are acting in behalf of society we have found a treasure
by which it is to be enriched Few indeed are those puissant and heavenly endowed spirits that are capable of guiding enlightening and leading the human race onward to felicity What is there precious but mind And when mind like a diamond of uncommon growth exceeds a certain magnitude calculation cannot find its value
I once more left him and never did I quit the company of human being no not of Anna St Ives herself with a more glowing and hoping heart But why describe sensations to thee Oliver with which thou art so intimately acquainted To bid thee rejoice to invite thee to participate in felicity which may and must so widely diffuse itself
were equally to wrong thy understanding and thy heart
F HENLEY